The Cornfield Caper
by LuckyLadybug
Summary: COMPLETED WITH CHAPTER 20! Please read and leave a nice review! Scarecrows are coming alive and causing trouble, and the YuGiOh! gang must investigate. But are they getting in over their heads? What sinister, otherworldly plot are they up against?
1. The Walking Scarecrow

Yu-Gi-Oh!  
The Cornfield Caper  
By Lucky_Ladybug  
  
  
Notes: As always, the Yu-Gi-Oh! characters do not belong to me; only the plot idea does! ^^ And, also as always, this is NOT slash ^_~  
  
  
"So, Tristan . . . Yaaaaa!" Joey screamed and recoiled as a huge, ugly, hairy spider was dangled in front of his face.  
  
Tristan cracked up, revealing that the spider was only rubber. "I never thought you'd be scared of a little spider, Joey!"  
  
"Oh man . . . that wasn't funny!" Joey yelled, glaring daggers at his friend.  
  
"Alright, cool it, you two," Tea ordered.  
  
Yugi chuckled. "It's hard to believe it's only a week till Halloween," he said.  
  
"You said it, man," Joey agreed, leaning back and seeming fairly docile again. "And I still say we should do something scary."  
  
"No thank you," Tea shuddered. "That earthquake the other night was plenty scary enough for me. It almost took Kaiba's life!"  
  
Joey grinned evilly, turning to face the wall. "Aw, I don't mean scary like that—I mean scary like . . . THIS!" He turned back around, wearing a hideous-looking mask. "Payback time!"  
  
Not only Tristan freaked out, but Yugi, Tea, and Bakura as well. Joey removed the mask, cracking up.  
  
He stopped abruptly when he realized someone else was laughing too.  
  
"It figures that you'd pull a stunt like that, Wheeler," a familiar voice remarked. "So childish!"  
  
Everyone turned to see Seto Kaiba standing a few feet away, smirking.  
  
"Kaiba! How long have you been standing there?!" Joey demanded.  
  
"Long enough," the blue-eyed boy replied.  
  
"Kaiba," Yugi smiled, "how are you feeling?"  
  
"You mean after being pinned down by that bookcase?" Seto asked with a wry smile. "I'm alright, Yugi. You know they can't keep me down for long." He decided, as he had before, not to mention anything about Kasumi, or the possibility that he had been dead. He wasn't about to sound absolutely nuts in front of Yugi and his friends. Joey did that enough for everyone, he thought wryly.  
  
"So, no more ghost sightings?" Joey asked with a grin.  
  
"No, Wheeler—no more ghost sightings," Seto replied. "And let's just keep it that way." He turned to leave.  
****  
When Seto went outside to his limo, he found Mokuba waiting.  
  
"Hi, big brother!" the young boy chirped, giving Seto a hug as he climbed inside.  
  
"Hey, Mokuba," Seto smiled, ruffling his brother's hair. "How was your day?"  
  
"It was good," Mokuba replied. He was about to pose the same question to Seto when he gasped suddenly. "Big brother! What's that?!"  
  
"What's what, Mokuba?" Seto asked, then started when he saw what Mokuba was pointing at. In a nearby yard, a scarecrow was climbing off its pole and walking off the property, an evil sneer on its painted face. Seto groaned. "Tell me I didn't see what I thought I saw," he grumbled.  
  
"What does it mean, Seto?" Mokuba's blue-gray eyes were wide.  
  
"I don't know, Mokuba," Seto said grimly, "but I don't like it. Not one bit."  
****  
"A scarecrow walking?! You're kidding!" Tea exclaimed. She had been surprised enough that Kaiba had turned up at Yugi's place without him telling this strange tale.   
  
"I couldn't be more serious," Seto replied.  
  
"Eh, are you sure you're feelin' okay, Kaiba?" Joey asked, raising an eyebrow.  
  
"You *were* almost creamed by that bookcase," Tristan added.  
  
"I'm fine," Seto insisted. "Mokuba and my chauffeur saw it as well."  
  
"Mokuba got hit on the head too," Joey remembered. "Maybe you were both hallucinating."  
  
Seto's eyes narrowed in irritation. "We were not hallucinating."  
  
"And the chauffeur saw it too, Joey," Yugi reminded him. "I believe you really saw it, Kaiba," the violet-eyed boy said kindly.  
  
Seto nodded in acknowledgment.  
  
"Hey, look!" Bakura gasped, pointing at the TV screen. "There's the director of the local funeral home, and he's talking about some kind of a break-in!"  
  
"Someone broke into a morgue? You've gotta be kidding," Joey said. "What did they want to steal? Dead bodies?"  
  
"Mr. Graves, did you see what the intruder looked like?" the reporter was asking.  
  
"I most certainly did," Mr. Graves said grimly. "You'll probably say I'm crazy, but he was dressed like a scarecrow. In fact, I'll go so far as to say that it *was* a scarecrow!"  
  
Everyone was floored.  
  
"No way!" Joey gasped.  
  
Seto raised an eyebrow. "Believe me now, Wheeler?"  
  
"Good heavens, what is this nonsense you kids are watching?!" Grampa Muto exclaimed, coming into the living room.  
  
"Kaiba here saw a scarecrow get up and walk," Yugi explained, "and now it looks like its gone and broken into the funeral home!"  
  
"Well, of all the ridiculous . . ." Grampa Muto shook his head in disbelief.  
  
"Perhaps we should go talk to Mr. Graves at the morgue about the scarecrow," Bakura suggested.  
  
"Would that be alright, Grampa?" Yugi asked.  
  
Grampa Muto paused, thinking, then slowly nodded. "Just be very careful," he warned. "Something tells me this could be another very dangerous mystery that you kids are getting involved in."  
  
"Hey, don't worry, Gramps, we'll be careful," Joey grinned. "What's the worst that could happen?"  
  
"Wheeler, haven't you learned by now that that's a very unwise thing to say?" Seto asked.  
  
"Hey, maybe someday my infamous question will have the answer I keep hopin' for," Joey said with a shrug.  
  
"Oh? And what would that answer be, Joseph?" Grampa Muto wondered curiously.  
  
Joey grinned. "'Nothing,' of course."  
  
"Fat chance of that ever happening," Tristan remarked as they went out the door.  
****  
"So the funeral director is really named 'Graves'?" Joey remarked, raising an eyebrow. "Too freaky!"  
  
Seto smirked. "I've heard stranger." He didn't elaborate.  
  
Yugi knocked on the door, which he'd discovered was locked. "Hello? Mr. Graves, are you there? We want to help."  
  
The door opened slowly. "I won't speak to any more reporters!" a man the teens recognized as Mr. Graves said hotly. He blinked suddenly, noticing exactly who was standing at his door. "Quite young for journalists, aren't you?" he commented.  
  
"We aren't journalists, Mr. Graves," Tea smiled.  
  
"No? Then who are you?" Mr. Graves asked grouchily.  
  
"We heard about the break-in, Mr. Graves, and we wanted to help," Yugi said. "I'm Yugi Muto, and these are my friends." He gestured at the other teens gathered around him.  
  
"Joey Wheeler, master detective, at your service," Joey grinned.  
  
"And Tristan Taylor, the Dr. Watson to Joey's Sherlock Holmes," Tristan grinned.  
  
"Tea Gardner," Tea introduced simply, shaking her head at the boys' goofy introductions.  
  
"And I'm Bakura," the silver-haired boy spoke up shyly.  
  
"And I don't know them," Seto smirked, indicating Joey and Tristan.  
  
Mr. Graves looked as though he wasn't sure what to make of this unusual crowd. "Well, come in," he finally said reluctantly.  
  
"So, Mr. Graves, did this scarecrow take anything?" Joey asked, jumping right into things.  
  
"Er . . . no, he, it . . . whatever it was did not take anything," Mr. Graves replied stiffly.  
  
"You'll have to excuse Joey here, Mr. Graves," Tea said. "He just loves playing detective."  
  
"Heeey . . . remember, we solved that big mystery back at the ski lodge just fine!" Joey said defensively.  
  
"As I remember, it was mostly Yugi who solved it," Tea returned.  
  
Yugi blushed. "We all worked together to solve it," he smiled.  
  
Seto raised an eyebrow. "To return to the matter at hand, I believe I saw the same scarecrow that you did, Mr. Graves," he said.  
  
"Well, if it was moving around and sneering, it definitely was the same one," Mr. Graves said sarcastically.  
  
"Mr. Graves, we'd honestly like to help you figure out what happened here," Yugi said, summoning his Yami.  
  
Mr. Graves relaxed a little. "Well, I suppose I could use some help . . . the police think it was either a stupid Halloween prank or even just my imagination, since I was the only one who saw it."  
  
"Mr. Graves, what do you think it was?" Yugi asked seriously.  
  
Mr. Graves threw up his hands in frustration. "I don't know! It just barged in, tramped through the front office, and then went back into the morgue and opened five coffins, as if it was looking for something—or shall we say, someone—and then ran out the back way!"  
  
"Freaky," Joey commented.  
  
"And no one else saw it?" Tea said in surprise.  
  
"No one," Mr. Graves sighed. "The only other person here at the time was my assistant, Bob Fielding, and he claims he never saw anything."  
  
"Is Bob still around?" Yugi wondered.  
  
"Oh yes, he's at his desk," Mr. Graves replied, "but I doubt he'll be of much help."  
  
"We'd like to talk to him anyway, if we could," Yugi said.  
  
"Be my guests," Mr. Graves said with a shrug, leading them down the hall and into an office area.  
  
A frazzled-looking young man in his late twenties was hard at work on his computer. He looked up abruptly when Mr. Graves led Yugi and the others in. "What's going on?" he demanded. "I've already talked to the police."  
  
"We're not the police," Yugi said. "We're just here to help."  
  
"Yeah, well, there's nothing to help us about," the man replied angrily. "It was just a dumb prank."  
  
"Bob, be more congenial," Mr. Graves scolded. "This is Yugi Muto, and he, along with his friends, is going to help us figure out what happened. Even if it was just a prank, I, for one, would like to know."  
  
Bob shrugged. "Knock yourselves out."  
  
Joey took a curious step over to the computer. "Soo, what're you workin' on, Bob?" he asked.  
  
"None of your business!" Bob snapped, setting up a screen saver so Joey couldn't look. "Stay away from me and my computer, wise guy!"  
  
"Ooh, touchy," Joey said, looking miffed.  
****  
Tristan sighed as they left the funeral home a half hour later. "Well, that was a big help," he said. "We didn't find anything out, except that you can always count on Joey to take a wrong turn."  
  
"Hey, how was I supposed to know that going in that other door would take us right into the morgue?" Joey said defensively.  
  
"Well, what do we do now, Yugi?" Tea asked.  
  
"A good question, Tea," Yugi sighed. "I'm not sure. We don't have a lot to go on."  
  
"You can say that again," Joey remarked. "Hey, wait a minute! Look, there goes something that looks really freaky!"  
  
Everyone came to attention. "You mean like . . .?" Tea started to say.  
  
"One maniacal scarecrow at twelve o'clock," Joey replied, just as the creature charged right at them. "Everybody scatter!"  
  
The six teens ran in six different directions, and the scarecrow ran on madly straight ahead.  
  
"Not so fast," Seto smirked, reaching out and grabbing the scarecrow by the arm. "Just who are you and what are you doing?!"  
  
The scarecrow sneered and shoved Seto backward forcefully, not bothering to answer the questions. Then it turned and disappeared down an alley.  
  
"Kaiba! Are you alright?" Yugi asked, as he and the others came out from their hiding places.  
  
"I'm fine, Yugi," Seto replied, standing up and dusting himself off. "But I have some news for you—that thing really was made out of straw." He held up several pieces of the stuff for inspection. "When I grabbed its arm, I could feel that it was."  
  
"Holy cow!" Joey gasped. "I figured it was probably just someone in a costume or something!"  
  
"Well, Joey, you wanted something scary to figure out," Tristan remarked.   
  
"Now it looks like you've got something, like it or not," Tea added with a sigh.  
  
Joey shrugged their comments off. "Let's split up and look for that thing!" he called out.  
  
"Alright, but let's be careful," Yugi cautioned. "There's six of us, so let's split up into three groups. Joey, you come with me."  
  
"You got it, Yug," Joey grinned.  
  
"I'll go with Bakura," Tristan volunteered.  
  
Tea looked around. "I guess that puts me with you, Kaiba," she said.  
  
Seto smirked. "I guess it does."  
  
"We'll all meet back at the game shop in two hours," Yugi directed. "If anyone fails to show up, the others will assume that they ran into trouble."  
  
Everyone nodded in agreement and went their separate ways, not knowing what kinds of dangers they might meet up with. 


	2. Shocked!

NOTE: I know it might look like I'm trying to get Seto and Tea together romantically, but I swear I'm not ^_~ I don't support any "shipper" movements!  
  
  
"What should we do, Kaiba?" Tea asked.  
  
"That thing couldn't have gotten far," Seto replied. "Let's go down this way," he decided, leading Tea into the alley.  
  
"How pleasant," Tea grumbled.  
  
"Look out!" Seto pulled Tea out of the way just as someone pushed a flowerpot off the roof of a mangy-looking building. It crashed down right where she had been standing only a moment before.  
  
Tea screamed. "Who would do that?! They could've killed me!"  
  
"Let's see if we can catch them and find out," Seto replied grimly, heading for the fire escape. Tea looked momentarily startled, but then followed him determinedly.  
  
When they got to the top, Seto looked around suspiciously. "Come out and face the music!" he yelled. "Why were you trying to kill us?"  
  
A horrible laugh was the only answer, and then another scarecrow emerged from behind an old crate, a deadly knife in hand.  
  
Tea gasped and backed up slowly, her eyes wide. "Kaiba, if you don't get out of the way, that thing is going to . . ."  
  
"I know what it's going to try to do, Tea," Seto replied, "but I'm not worried." Abruptly he shot his leg out and tripped the scarecrow, sending the knife flying out of its hand and clattering harmlessly to the roof's floor. With a smirk, Seto stomped on the straw-filled doll and a cloud of smoke rose up. When it cleared, the scarecrow was laying harmless as well. "It's alright, Tea," Seto told the astonished girl. "Now it's just straw and cloth again. It's not alive."  
  
"But . . . it was . . . a minute ago," Tea said, blinking in confusion.  
  
Seto sighed. "I know." He turned to climb down from the roof. "Come on."  
  
"Where?" Tea demanded.  
  
"To my place," Seto replied. "Let's see if my computer can help us figure out what's going on around here."  
****  
"So, what's the plan, Yugi?" Joey asked.  
  
"Be on guard for anything that looks suspicious," Yugi replied.  
  
"Suspicious?" Joey repeated. "You mean somethin' like that?" He pointed ahead, where another scarecrow was sneaking out of the cornfield it was supposed to be guarding.  
  
"Exactly like that!" Yugi replied. "Come on, after it!"  
  
Quickly the two friends ran into the cornfield after the runaway scarecrow. "Hey, come back here, you!" Joey yelled.  
  
He looked around, suddenly discovering he was alone. "Hey, Yugi!" he called. "Where'd you go?!"  
  
A hand clamped on his shoulder. "Oh, here you are," Joey said, relieved.  
  
A snarl was the answer.  
  
"Uh . . . Yugi?" Joey was starting to get nervous. "That wasn't you . . . was it?"  
  
The next moments were full of confusion as Joey found himself wrestling on the ground with the scarecrow, which was putting up quite a fight. Joey grunted, grabbing his opponent around the neck.  
  
"Alright, I've got you now, you . . . you . . ." Joey stopped and gasped. Suddenly the scarecrow had disappeared and he now had his fingers wrapped tightly around Yugi's neck. "Yugi!" he gasped. "Where did you come from?!" He loosened his grip, helping his friend stand up.  
  
"I don't know, Joey," Yugi said grimly. "That was very strange. I don't like this one bit."  
  
"That makes two of us," Joey groaned.  
****  
"Hey, Bakura, look at that!" Tristan exclaimed, pointing. "There's the scarecrow over there!"  
  
"Oh dear," Bakura said, his brown eyes wide. "It looks as though it's about to cause some kind of mischief!"  
  
"Quick, after it!" Tristan yelled.  
  
"Aren't we trespassing?" Bakura exclaimed as they ran into a vegetable garden.  
  
"I don't know," Tristan replied. "The owner of this garden might be grateful to us for catching his scarecrow."  
  
"Or maybe he'd just think we escaped from the local mental hospital!" Bakura shot back.  
  
Tristan looked up ahead. "There it is! I'm gonna let it have it!" With that, he charged, getting ready to punch the straw man. Instead, he found himself being hoisted up onto the scarecrow's pole. "Hey! What the . . . let me down!!" he yelled, kicking wildly in vain.  
  
It seemed as though he'd been trapped there for ages when Bakura finally came along. The silver-haired boy stopped short in astonishment. "Oh my!" he gasped. "What happened?!"  
  
"Bakura! Get me down from here!" Tristan screamed.  
  
"Oh. Of course," Bakura said, hurrying to unwrap Tristan's trenchcoat from around the pole. "What on earth happened?" he asked again.  
  
"What else? That maniacal monstrosity put me up here!" Tristan replied angrily, as he was finally freed.  
  
"Oh my," Bakura gasped as he helped his friend stand up. "This isn't good at all!"  
  
"You can say that again," Tristan grumbled. "And now that thing's gotten away again!"  
  
"Should we go after it again?" Bakura wondered.  
  
"Of course," Tristan said, his hazel eyes glowing with anger. "I'm not going to be pushed around by a man made of straw!"  
****  
"Follow me, Tea," Seto said, opening a secret door in the wall.  
  
"What are you going to do, Kaiba?" Tea asked, confused, as he led her into a room lined with giant computer screens. "I don't understand."  
  
Seto smirked. "We're going to see if we can find out what Graves' assistant was hiding from us on his computer."  
  
Before Tea could reply, Seto looked around the room suspiciously. "Something isn't right here."  
  
"Huh? What do you mean?" Tea demanded.  
  
Seto shook his head. "I don't know." He moved over to the keyboard. "Maybe the computer does." He pressed the Startup button on the hard drive and went to type a command into the machine. In the next instant, Tea gasped as the boy was thrown forcefully against the wall. He groaned once and fell still.  
  
"Kaiba!" Tea exclaimed, panic creeping into her voice.  
  
"What just happened?" a new, feminine-sounding voice asked.  
  
"Who said that?" Tea demanded, looking around.  
  
"Me," the voice replied. "I'm Seto Kaiba's computer." Tea turned to look at the computer, which was now loading up the Desktop screen. "I was still booting up and I didn't see what happened, but I heard Kaiba scream in pain."  
  
Tea looked back and forth between the computer and Seto's silent form, a sinking suspicion growing in her mind. Quickly she dropped a hairpin on the keyboard and then drew back when sparks sizzled and sent the pin flying, confirming her fears.  
  
"Oh no. Are you trying to tell me that he received an electrical shock?" the computer exclaimed.  
  
Tea nodded slowly. "Yes . . . yes, I'm afraid he did."  
  
"I should've known that the creepy guy who broke in here would do something like this," the computer sighed, "but he shut me down before I could stop him." The machine paused. "Okay, now I can see Kaiba slumped against the wall. He doesn't look so well. Honey, do you know first aid?" she asked urgently.  
  
"Yes, I do," Tea said, kneeling down next to Seto's still body.  
  
"Then you'd better make sure he's alive," the computer told her. "If a blast of electricity is strong enough to render someone unconscious, it can also be strong enough to stop their heart."  
  
Tea nodded numbly, placing a hand on Seto's chest. She breathed a sigh of relief when she felt the boy's heart still beating. "He's alive," she announced, only realizing then just how worried she had been.  
  
"Thank heavens," the computer declared. "Try to wake him up, honey." The machine paused. "I know to most everyone, I'm just a computer, but I've known Seto Kaiba for years now—he created me, programmed me—and I consider myself his friend. I don't know why someone would hurt him like this!" Now she sounded angry.  
  
Tea checked Seto for electrical burns and was surprised and relieved to find that he didn't seem to have any. Gently she rubbed his wrists, trying to rouse him, and soon was rewarded when his eyes fluttered.  
  
"Kaiba? Can you hear me?" Tea asked.  
  
Seto was silent, then slowly nodded.  
  
"Are you hurt? Can you speak?" Tea looked into his deep-blue eyes, which had just opened. They looked glassy at first, but then focused.  
  
"I'm alright, Tea," Seto managed to say. "Just weak."  
  
"That's good to know," the computer said, obviously relieved. "You had us both very worried!"  
  
Seto raised an eyebrow at Tea as if to say *You* were worried about *me?!*  
  
Tea blushed and narrowed her eyes. "Of course I was worried about you, Seto Kaiba!" she declared out loud. "You gave me a terrible scare, flying across the room the way you did! I thought you were probably dead!"  
  
"It's not that easy to get rid of me, Tea," Seto replied with a smirk, shakily standing up and then collapsing into a nearby chair. "But what happened to me?!" he demanded, suddenly serious again.  
  
"Someone sabotaged my keyboard and gave you a nasty shock," the computer told him.  
  
"Oh they did, huh?" Seto's eyes narrowed. "You mean to say someone bypassed all the security and alarms and got in here to rig things so I'd be electrocuted?!" He clenched his fists angrily.  
  
"I'm afraid so," the computer sighed.  
  
"That's outrageous!" Tea declared hotly. "And horrible!" Her hand brushed against a piece of paper. "Huh? What's this?" She picked it up. "It's a message written with letters cut from a newspaper," she announced.  
  
Seto took it and read it aloud. "'If you're reading this, you've obviously recovered from your rather shocking experience.'" His eyes narrowed at the bad pun. "'Consider it a warning,'" he read on. "'Stop investigating now or next time you won't recover!'"  
  
Tea gasped. "That's terrible! They just threatened to kill you!"  
  
"Someone is seriously demented," the computer declared.  
  
Seto looked angry enough to bite through metal. "Whoever it is won't get away with their plans," he muttered. "I'll see to that."  
  
Tea looked at him, concerned. "Are you sure you're alright, Kaiba? Maybe I should call an ambulance."  
  
Seto grimaced. "That's the last thing I need—doctors poking, prodding, and fussing over me. No, what I need is a quiet night here. I'll be fine in the morning. You go on back to the game shop, Tea. They'll be waiting for you. I'll have my chauffeur take you there."  
  
"Oh . . . thank you." Tea blinked, a little surprised. She paused. "What was it you were going to do with the computer when we came in?"  
  
Seto smirked. "I was planning to hack into Bob Fielding's computer. I saw something on his screen that looked suspicious and I wanted to check it out further. I will, too, once I get the keyboard rewired. I also want to see if my computer got a good look on the conniving snake who broke in here."  
  
Tea sighed. "Well, be careful," she said finally.  
  
"Thanks. I never thought I'd need to be careful in my own house," Seto replied wryly. Tea could see the anger in his eyes. She said goodbye and left shortly afterwards.  
  
As she rode back to Yugi's place, the events of the day swirled through her mind. She wasn't especially looking forward to solving a new strange mystery right now. This one looked like it was going to be even stranger than the first one, she sighed to herself.  
  
Suddenly she gasped, seeing something out the window. "Stop the limo!" she cried. 


	3. Scare in the School

The chauffeur slammed on the brakes, startled.  
  
"I see Tristan and Bakura!" Tea gasped. "And there's something chasing them!"  
  
She threw the door open. "Quick, get in!" she called.  
  
The two boys dove into the limo, their eyes wide with fright.  
  
"What was that?!" Tea gasped.  
  
"A scarecrow," Tristan replied, leaning back and catching his breath.  
  
"It's been chasing us for ages," Bakura added.  
  
Tristan looked around, suddenly realizing where he was. "Tea, why are you in Kaiba's limo?!" he demanded.  
  
"Long story," she replied. "I'll tell you after we find Yugi and Joey." Getting an idea, she picked up the car phone and dialed Yugi's number.  
  
Grampa Muto answered. "Hello, Muto residence."  
  
"Hi, Grampa Muto, it's Tea," the girl said into the phone.  
  
"Tea! Where in the name of Heaven have you been?" Grampa Muto demanded. "We've been worried sick!"  
  
"Tristan and Bakura are with me," Tea said, "and we're all okay. We're heading back right now."  
  
"That's good to know." Grampa Muto sounded obviously relieved. "We'll see you shortly then."  
****  
"So now, Tea, why in the world were you riding in Kaiba's limo?" Tristan asked again when they were all back at Yugi's place.  
  
Tea told them the whole story, ending with how Seto had let her ride back to the game shop in his limousine.  
  
"Someone broke in and gave Kaiba an electric shock?!" Joey exclaimed. "Man, we haven't been on the case for a whole day and already people are gettin' hurt!"  
  
"He's alright, isn't he?" Yugi asked, his eyes wide with horror.  
  
Tea sighed. "Oh, you know Kaiba. He'd say he was alright whether he actually was or not!"  
  
Joey laughed. "You're right there, Tea. I've never seen anyone more independent than Seto Kaiba."  
  
"Actually, Joey, you're pretty independent yourself," Tristan grinned, remembering several past incidents when Joey had demonstrated how he felt he was capable of handling problems all by himself without help from anyone else.  
  
Joey rolled his eyes, then grinned as well. "Of course, I had to be independent," he said. "That's the way I got through life in Brooklyn."  
****  
Seto found himself yawning as he put the keyboard back together. That shock had really drained him of his energy, and he longed to go to sleep, but he needed to repair the damage done to the piece of hardware first. He didn't want Mokuba to wander in and suddenly be shocked as he had been.  
  
The computer picked up on his exhaustion too. "You should go to bed," she told him.  
  
"I will, just as soon as I reconnect the keyboard," Seto replied.  
  
"Are you going to tell Mokuba what happened?" the computer asked.  
  
Seto sighed. "I don't know."  
  
"Tell me what, big brother?"  
  
Seto turned around to see Mokuba standing in the doorway. "Mokuba," he said in surprise, "what are you doing up at this hour?"  
  
"I couldn't sleep," the young boy replied, coming over to sit next to his brother. "The maid said you've been down here for hours! Is something wrong?"  
  
Seto laid the keyboard aside and gave his full attention to Mokuba. "Listen, Mokuba," he said seriously, "I want you to be very careful until I can have someone come to check the house out tomorrow. Someone broke in tonight and tampered with my computer's keyboard, and I don't know if they might have done some more damage as well."  
  
Mokuba's eyes went wide. "What did they do, big brother?"  
  
Seto sighed and ruffled his brother's hair. "Let's just say they disturbed the wiring and leave it at that."  
  
Mokuba was not fooled. "Did you get hurt, big brother?" he asked.  
  
Seto paused. "Yes, I did, Mokuba," he said finally, "and I don't want the same thing to happen to you."  
****  
"So . . . what's the plan, Yugi?" Joey asked the next day as they walked to school. "We don't have a lot to go on here."  
  
"I know," Yugi said grimly. "I'm not sure what to do."  
  
**Yugi, you must be extremely careful,** Yami Yugi warned. **I can feel darkness approaching.**  
  
~Darkness? What do you mean, Yami?~ Yugi asked, concerned.  
  
**I'm not sure,** Yami Yugi admitted. **It's not clear. But I'm afraid you just might be getting in over your head, Yugi.**  
  
~But we can't back down now,~ Yugi protested. ~We promised Mr. Graves we'd help him!~  
  
**I know, Yugi, and I'm not telling you to back down. But we must be very, very careful. In a case like this, nothing is as it seems.**  
  
Before Yugi had a chance to ponder his Yami's advice, Tea came running up to them as they approached the school yard. Her eyes were wide and her face was a chalky white.  
  
"Tea! What's wrong?" Yugi exclaimed.  
  
"You look like you just saw a ghost!" Joey added.  
  
"Yugi . . . Joey . . . it's just terrible!" Tea cried. "Two students are missing!"  
  
The boys gasped. That was the last thing they'd expected to hear. "Oh no!" Yugi exclaimed.  
  
"Who? How? Why?!" Joey demanded.  
  
"It was Lionel Turner and Stacy Lake," Tea reported. "They both disappeared from their homes last night and no one knows where they went or why. Their parents think they were kidnapped!"  
  
"That's terrible!" Yugi gasped.  
  
"You said it, Yug," Joey agreed, shaking his head. "Man, I hope they're okay."  
  
Yugi nodded in agreement. "You know, I suppose that could've been us."  
  
"And it could still be us," Tea added.  
  
"So there aren't any clues at all to their disappearances?" Joey asked.  
  
Tea shook her head. "Nothing in either of their rooms was disturbed at all. It was like they were just suddenly . . . gone."  
  
"Pretty creepy," Joey remarked. Then he shrugged. "Or maybe we're just being paranoid. Weren't Lionel and Stacy gettin' pretty serious a while ago? Maybe they went off and eloped." He grinned mischievously.  
  
"Joey, this is serious!" Tea scolded.  
  
"I am serious," Joey returned.  
  
"If they went anywhere of their own accord, why didn't they take anything with them?" Tea pointed out.  
  
"Eh, good point, Tea." Joey lapsed into silence.  
  
"Maybe they both intended to come back . . . but never made it," Yugi said quietly.  
  
"Exactly what I'm afraid of," Tea sighed, just as Tristan and Bakura joined them.  
  
"Hey guys, what's up?" Tristan asked curiously.  
  
Between the three of them, Yugi, Joey, and Tea related the disturbing news over again. Tristan and Bakura looked appalled.  
  
"Man, that's not good," Tristan remarked, shaking his head.  
  
"Oh dear, I hope they're alright," Bakura said as they walked into the school, his soft brown eyes wide.  
  
"Look, there's Kaiba," Joey announced, pointing the young businessman out to the others. He was standing reading the bulletin board half-heartedly, as though he didn't have anything better to do.  
  
"I thought he might be staying home today," Yugi said in surprise.  
  
"Eh, you know Kaiba," Joey replied with a shrug.  
  
"Hey, Kaiba," Yugi greeted as they walked over. Seto turned to look at them, raising an eyebrow. "Are you feeling okay?" Yugi asked, concerned. Up close he could see that Seto looked vaguely pale. "Tea told us what happened."  
  
Seto nodded, his expression never changing. "I expected she would. But I can assure you that I'm fine," he said.  
  
"Are you sure?" Yugi asked.  
  
"Yeah, you look kinda pale," Joey added, voicing Yugi's thoughts.  
  
"I'm fine," Seto said again, sounding irritated.  
  
"Whatever you say, man," Joey replied with a shrug.  
  
"Have you heard about those students who disappeared?" Yugi asked.  
  
"Yes, I did, actually," Seto said. "It seems strange that all these weird things would be happening at once."  
  
Joey raised an eyebrow. "Eh, you mean you think the disappearances might be connected to our new mystery?"  
  
"It's possible, I suppose," Seto replied. "But then again, I do believe in coincidences." He paused. "However, not when one considers that both students who vanished had scarecrows in their backyards, which also vanished last night."  
  
Everyone started. "What?!" Tea gasped.  
  
"Oh man!" Joey exclaimed. "Does that mean the students were kidnapped by . . . scarecrows?!"  
  
"I don't know what it means, Wheeler," Seto answered. "It just means . . ."  
  
"It means somethin' freaky is goin' on!" Joey interrupted.  
  
"We know that much, Wheeler," Seto said dryly.  
  
"Well, I don't know about you guys, but I'm seriously startin' to panic here!" Joey declared.  
  
"At this point, I'm not sure I blame you," Tea replied with a shudder.  
  
"Uh, guys, I don't want to worry anyone, but there's a scarecrow standing right behind Joey," Tristan announced suddenly.  
  
"What?! I'm not fallin' for another of your dumb pranks!" Joey said stubbornly, crossing his arms.  
  
"Wheeler, this isn't one of Taylor's ridiculous pranks—this is real," Seto told him.  
  
"Oh, so it's one of *your* pranks, Kaiba," Joey shot back.  
  
"I don't play pranks, Wheeler," Seto snapped.  
  
"Joey, he's being serious!" Yugi exclaimed.  
  
Joey whirled around and came face to face with a horrid-looking scarecrow. "Yaaaaaa!" he screamed, backing up.  
  
"I told you so, Wheeler," Seto shrugged.  
  
Joey wasn't listening. "What do you want with me??!" he yelped.  
  
The scarecrow reached out to grab him.  
  
"On second thought, talk later, run NOW!" Joey shrieked, and he and the other five teens did exactly that.  
  
"No running in the halls!" the principal yelled, then screamed upon seeing their assailant and quickly slammed the door to her office.  
  
"Yugi, what should we do?" Tea asked as they ran past the cafeteria and the science classroom.  
  
"I don't know, Tea, but I don't think we should stop running!" Yugi replied.  
  
"For once I agree with you!" Seto yelled.  
  
They didn't slow down until they had reached the homeroom. When Yugi and Seto dared to look back, the scarecrow was gone.  
  
"Alright!" Joey grinned. "Looks like that thing decided it was no match for the rough, tough Joey Wheeler!"  
  
The others exchanged Looks.  
  
"I kind of doubt that, Joey," Tea said finally, while Seto laughed.  
  
"Ah, my adoring fans!" Joey remarked.  
  
"Seriously, why did that scarecrow leave?" Bakura wondered.   
  
Yugi looked grim. "I think it was just trying to scare us now, but that later, when we least expect it, it will return with a vengeance to do whatever it intends to, and I'm sure it's not good."  
  
"You mean at any given time, we might become bait for a straw man?!" Joey exclaimed.  
  
Yugi nodded. "We'll all have to watch out." 


	4. Black Out

~Yami, I feel so helpless,~ Yugi sighed. ~I wish I knew what to do . . . but I don't think I've ever dealt with something so puzzling!~  
  
**I understand your confusion, Yugi,** Yami Yugi replied. **This is like nothing we've ever encountered before. And I have the feeling that something terrible is about to happen!**  
  
~Oh no,~ Yugi gasped, ~do you have any idea what it might be?~  
  
**I wish I did,** Yami Yugi said grimly. **Unfortunately, I do not. But I can sense evil very near. This just might prove to be our most dangerous battle yet.**  
****  
"There's been no sign of those missing students," Bakura sighed toward the end of the school day, shaking his head sadly. "It's as though they've vanished off the face of the earth!"  
  
"I know," Tristan agreed. "Where in the heck could they be?!"  
  
"Where in the heck could who be?" a familiar, gravelly voice asked.  
  
Everyone turned to see Yami Bakura standing in the doorway, a nasty gleam in his slanted brown eyes.  
  
"Those poor students who vanished," Bakura told him.  
  
"Them?" Yami Bakura waved a hand unsympathetically. "Foolish mortals."  
  
"Do you know something about them?" Tea demanded.  
  
"Of course not. Why should I?" Yami Bakura snapped. "And even if I did know something, why would I tell you?"  
  
With that, the ancient tomb raider vanished, presumably back into the Millennium Ring.  
  
"Man, he's hopeless," Tristan declared, shaking his head.  
  
"Eh, Bakura, you sure got stuck with a mean one," Joey remarked.  
  
"Don't I know it," Bakura sighed.  
  
Suddenly the lights flickered and went out, plunging the school into chaos.  
  
"What's happening?!" Tea cried, as students crashed and bumped into each other.  
  
"It's probably just a power outage," Tristan said.  
  
"But it's not stormy outside!" Tea protested.  
  
"Hey, watch it!" Joey yelled angrily as he was shoved to the floor by the jostling students.  
  
"Watch it yourself, Wheeler!" Seto said, sounding disgruntled as Joey accidentally knocked him over, starting a domino effect.  
  
"Alright, alright, everyone, just calm down!" Tea yelled, trying to take control. It took a while before she was finally able to get everyone's attention.  
  
"The power should be back on soon," Tristan said.  
  
"Let's do a roll call and see if everyone's here," Tea suggested.  
  
After some more confusion, everyone was finally accounted for, except . . .  
  
"Yugi!" Tea gasped. "Yugi's gone!"  
****  
Yugi cried out in pain as he was shoved against the wall by frantic students looking for the exit. ~Yami, what's happening? Why did the lights go out?~  
  
**I don't know, Yugi, but . . .**  
  
Yami Yugi was interrupted as a cold, bony hand clamped down on Yugi's shoulder and a cold chill passed through the boy's body.  
  
"Who are you? What do you want?" Yugi demanded, sensing the evil around him and summoning his Yami.  
  
The owner of the bony hand hissed, feeling the goodness radiating from the boy and momentarily backing away.  
  
This one dark phantom was soon joined by countless numbers of the creatures, and they surrounded Yugi, who stood his ground bravely and raised his right hand to banish them.  
  
Before he could, he was suddenly ambushed by over a dozen of the dark warriors. "Yami, help!" the poor boy screamed aloud. "I can't fight them off!"  
  
**Yugi,** Yami Yugi replied through their mental bond, **I'm trying to help you, but these dark warriors . . . they're doing something to me . . . I've never dealt with something like this before . . .** The ancient pharaoh let out a scream as the wraith in the lead suddenly pulled him out of the Millennium Puzzle and threw him across the room, where more of the evil phantoms started beating him.  
  
"Yugi!" Yami Yugi yelled, trying to break free and reach the boy he had been guiding and protecting for the last several years, and was immediately beaten back by a demonic weapon. Another of the minions kicked him hard in the head and he fell backward down a flight of stairs, landing hard at the bottom.  
****  
"The lights are on again!" Bakura announced in surprise thirty minutes later, as the school was suddenly bathed in light.  
  
"What a relief," Tea declared. "Come on! We have to find Yugi!"  
  
The five teens split up to scan the halls and classrooms. It wasn't long before a scream came from a nearby stairwell and the boys quickly converged at the door, which Joey flung open. "What's the matter, Tea?" he called.  
  
"It's Yugi!" Tea screamed. "He's been beaten up!"  
  
"Oh man," Joey gasped as he and the others ran down the stairs and to the landing. They knelt around the boy's still form and Joey gently turned him over.  
  
"Wait a minute," Bakura said suddenly, staring at the boy's face, "I don't think this is Yugi."  
  
"Hey, yeah," Joey said, realization creeping over him. "This guy looks like Yugi's Yami."  
  
"But if he's here, then where's Yugi?" Tea wondered.  
  
"I have a bad feeling about this," Seto said grimly.  
  
The boy stirred, his violet eyes opening. "Yugi . . . where's Yugi?" he rasped.  
  
"He's not here," Tea told him with a terrible sinking feeling. What had happened? "Are you alright, Yami?"  
  
Yami Yugi tried to stand up but then had to catch the wall before he fell over.  
  
"Whoa, man, be careful," Joey said, rushing to give him a hand.  
  
"We were attacked," Yami Yugi said finally. "Whatever it was . . . wasn't mortal."  
  
Everyone gasped.  
  
"What are you saying?" Seto asked.  
  
"They took Yugi," Yami Yugi replied solemnly, leaning on Joey. "They must have. They knew I was protecting him, and they used some kind of dark magic to get me away."  
  
"What would they have done with Yugi?" Tea fretted. This was getting worse by the minute. Right now she didn't see how it could ever get worse than this. Maniacal scarecrows were wandering free, people were disappearing, and now Yugi had been kidnapped!  
  
Yami Yugi shook his head. "I don't know. But I have to find him."  
  
"Whoa, man, you're in no condition to do anything but get a good night's sleep," Joey protested.  
  
Yami Yugi stood his ground firmly. "I have to find him now. There's no telling what those dark wraiths want with Yugi, but I know it can't be good."  
  
"This is terrible!" Tea cried. "Poor Yugi!"  
  
"When do we leave, man?" Joey asked.  
  
"This is too dangerous for any of you to come with me," Yami Yugi said grimly as he tried to regain his strength. "Those wraiths meant business. I won't expose all of you to the danger."  
  
"No way," Joey said hotly. "We gotta find Yugi. We're not gonna be scared away by a few measly ghosts."  
  
Yami Yugi smiled. "You are all such loyal friends. I knew you wouldn't take no for an answer, but I'm afraid this time I'll have to insist. From what I've seen of these creatures, they have proved to be extremely ruthless and cruel, and they have dark forces at their disposal. I don't want anyone else to be captured or injured." With that he was engulfed by a bright light, and when it had faded away, the ancient pharaoh had vanished.  
  
"What do we do?" Tea wondered worriedly.  
  
"You heard him, Tea—we're supposed to stay out of this," Tristan said.  
  
"But you know we can't!" Tea exclaimed. "We have to do something!"  
  
"Maybe Yugi's still in the building somewhere," Joey suggested.  
  
"I'm afraid that's not very likely," Bakura said softly.  
  
"Well, we have to try something," Tea replied. "Let's check the basement and the boiler room."  
  
A thorough search of the school turned up nothing.  
  
"I was afraid of this," Bakura said sadly. "They've probably taken him far away, perhaps even to another realm."  
  
"But what would they want with him?" Tea said in despair.  
  
"I don't know, but when we find them, they're gonna wish they'd never messed with us!" Joey slammed his fist into his palm angrily.  
****  
When Yugi opened his eyes, it was dark and cold all around him. He shivered, pulling his jacket close around him. ~Yami, are you there?~ he called through their mental bond, praying for an answer. He couldn't quite remember what had happened, but he knew his Yami wasn't in the Millennium Puzzle.  
  
There was a brief silence, and then Yugi's prayers were answered when Yami Yugi replied, **Yugi! Are you alright?** He sounded extremely relieved. **I've been trying to get through to you for a long time now! I was getting very concerned.**  
  
~I'm okay . . . I think,~ Yugi replied slowly.  
  
**Do you know where you are?**  
  
Yugi looked around. ~I can't see anything,~ he admitted. ~But it feels . . . ominous and evil somehow.~ He shivered uneasily. ~I think someone's watching me! Yami, what happened?~  
  
**Some kind of dark warriors attacked us, Yugi,** Yami Yugi replied grimly. **I don't know what they want, but it can't be good. I'm going to find you, Yugi, but until I am able to, you must be extremely careful.**  
  
Yugi nodded slowly, and then his violet eyes went wide with worry. ~Yami, are you hurt?~ he asked. He had remembered hearing his Yami screaming in pain just before he, Yugi, had blacked out.  
  
Yami Yugi paused. He actually had been injured in the attack, especially by the wraiths' brutal, other-worldly weapons, but he didn't want to worry Yugi. **Don't worry about me, Yugi,** he said finally. **I'm alright.**  
  
Yugi was not fooled, but he recognized the "we'll talk about this later" tone in his Yami's voice. ~Yami, they're . . . they're coming back,~ he gasped. ~I can feel the evil they bring with them!~  
  
Yami Yugi tensed. This was bad. **Yugi, keep talking to me if you can,** he told him.  
  
~Yami, they have someone with them,~ Yugi exclaimed. ~He looks strange . . . almost like he's been hypnotized!~  
  
Yami Yugi paused, the color draining from his face.  
  
~Yami? Are you still there?~ Yugi asked, sounding worried.  
  
**Yes, I'm here, Yugi,** Yami Yugi replied finally. **What are they doing now?**  
  
~They shoved the person to the floor,~ Yugi said indignantly. ~But . . . he didn't even seem to notice!~  
  
**Yugi, he's not hypnotized,** Yami Yugi said grimly. **It's far worse than that.**  
  
Yugi gasped. ~What is it, Yami?~ Memories of a mind control drug that had once been cruelly used on Kaiba danced through his mind.  
  
**He has become almost zombielike,** Yami Yugi told him.  
  
~Zombielike!~ Yugi gasped.  
  
**That's right,** Yami Yugi replied. **He has no will of his own, but must do whatever the dark wraiths want him to.**  
  
~That's horrible!~ Yugi exclaimed.  
  
**And that's not all.** Yami Yugi sounded grim. **I'm afraid you will be next.** 


	5. First Encounters

NOTE: Just my periodic reminder that this isn't slash ;D LOL.  
  
  
Yugi gasped. ~Next?! Yami, why would they want me?!~  
  
**I don't know,** Yami Yugi admitted.  
  
~How do they do it, Yami?~ Yugi asked. ~How do they make people go like . . . like that?!~  
  
**It has something to do with the powers held by real zombies,** Yami Yugi said grimly. **These dark wraiths must have some of the undead under their control. The undead then go around to whomever the wraiths wish and bring them under the wraiths' control as well.**  
  
Yugi tensed. ~Something's coming, Yami!~ he exclaimed.  
  
**Yugi, hold on,** Yami Yugi told him. **You can resist the dark power, I know you can!** He felt their mental connection snap. **Yugi! Can you hear me? Answer me, Yugi!** It was no use. Yugi was not able to respond for one of a number of reasons, none of which were good.  
  
"Yugi," Yami Yugi whispered aloud, a tear falling from his eye. He looked up determinedly. **I'll find you, Yugi,** he promised. **Just hang in there a while longer.**  
****  
"This is terrible!" Tea cried. "Poor Yugi! Where could he be??!"  
  
"Don't worry, Tea, we'll find him," Tristan assured her.  
  
"Yeah, but when? And will he be okay when we do?" Tea wrung her hands worriedly as Joey opened the door to the game shop. "And how will we ever tell Yugi's grandpa?"  
  
"I already know," the elderly man said gravely.  
  
Everyone looked up to see Grampa Muto at the counter, watching them enter the shop.  
  
"You . . . you do, Grampa Muto?" Tea blinked in surprise. "But how?"  
  
"I could sense something had happened to Yugi," Grampa Muto replied sadly. "We share a special bond, he and I."  
  
"We're so sorry, Grampa Muto," Tea said softly. "I was afraid something like this might happen after I heard about those two students who disappeared."  
  
"It's alright, Tea, I don't blame any of you for what happened," Grampa Muto assured her and the others. "And Yugi is one tough boy. I'm sure he'll be alright." Despite these words, the teens could see the worry in the man's eyes.  
  
"I have to be going," Seto said abruptly. "Mokuba will be waiting for me."  
  
"Okay, see you later, Kaiba," Joey replied. "Take it easy, man."  
  
"I told you, I'm fine," Seto grumbled, pushing the door open. "Goodbye, Mr. Muto," he called back.  
  
"Goodbye, Seto Kaiba," Grampa Muto replied, but Seto had already disappeared out the door. The elderly man sighed. "There's too much going on here for me to keep up with. Scarecrows coming to life, Seto Kaiba being injured, people vanishing without a trace, and now Yugi being kidnapped . . ." He trailed off.  
  
"We'll figure out what's happening," Tea said comfortingly. "Right, everyone?"  
  
"That's right!" Joey agreed, and Tristan and Bakura nodded as well. "We're gonna bash us some scarecrows!"  
****  
Yami Yugi wandered the dark streets in despair. Yugi had been missing for hours, and he hadn't been able to establish a mental connection with him since it had been broken off abruptly ages ago.  
  
"What should I do?" he said softly. "Where should I look?"  
  
That's when he felt the impression to check the deserted alley just behind the buildings on the street he was on.  
  
When he stood at the front of the desolate and narrow alley, he could feel the evil that lay in wait. Narrowing his eyes, Yami Yugi raised his right hand and banished the sinister presence before entering the abandoned passageway. "Yugi? Are you here?" he called softly. Silence was his only answer.  
  
About halfway through, Yami Yugi suddenly noticed what looked like a small form curled up against the back wall of a building. "Yugi?" he asked, kneeling down and gathering the limp body into his arms. "Wake up, Yugi . . . please," he said softly. A cold chill ran down his spine. Even if Yugi did wake up, would he still . . . would he still be Yugi? What if . . . what if the zombie had overpowered him and Yugi was now like one of them? Yami Yugi couldn't bear to think of gentle, innocent Yugi being controlled by evil forces, unable to make any decisions for himself, and forced to do whatever the wraiths wished.  
  
"Speak to me, Yugi," Yami Yugi pleaded. He knew they wouldn't be able to know if Yugi had been affected by the zombies until he woke up, which didn't seem forthcoming any time soon. **Hang on, Yugi,** he said through their mental bond, **we're going home.**  
****  
Seto closed the blind in his home office with a sigh. He didn't feel like being watched by the scarecrow in the next yard over.  
  
He hoped that Yugi would be found soon. This mystery was proving to be very dangerous.  
  
"Big brother?"  
  
Seto looked up and smiled. "What's up, Mokuba?" The electrician had checked out the house earlier and had concluded that nothing else was out of place, much to Seto's relief.  
  
Mokuba came in and sat down next to his brother. "Big brother, why is all this stuff happening?" he asked.  
  
Seto sighed. "I wish I knew, Mokuba. Someone doesn't want us to find out why." He smiled crookedly. "But they're not scaring me. If anything, they just make me all the more determined to solve this."  
  
Mokuba grinned and hugged Seto, then looked uneasy. "Just stay safe, Seto . . . please," he whispered, his blue-gray eyes shining.  
  
"Don't worry, Mokuba," Seto assured him. "I'll be alright."  
  
That's when the phone rang. "Kaiba," Seto answered, pressing the button for Line 1.  
  
"It's Tea," the familiar voice announced. "Yugi's been found."  
  
"What's wrong with him?" Seto asked. He could tell from the tone of Tea's voice that something was.  
  
"We don't know yet," Tea replied softly. "He's unconscious. His Yami thinks he was poisoned by a zombie."  
  
There was a long silence.  
  
"Kaiba? Are you there?" Tea demanded.  
  
"You are kidding, aren't you?" Seto said finally.  
  
"Seto Kaiba! I would never kid about someone being hurt!" Tea replied angrily.  
  
Another silence.  
  
Maybe I was too harsh, she thought to herself. "I know it probably sounds ridiculous," she admitted finally, not sure whether she was talking to herself or not.  
  
"Try insane," Seto told her. He paused. "Keep me informed on how he is," he requested.  
  
"I will," Tea promised, and hung up.  
  
Mokuba looked up at his brother curiously. "What's wrong, big brother?"  
  
Seto sighed. "It's Yugi," he said. "Someone hurt him." He decided not to mention the zombie nonsense.  
  
"That's awful!" Mokuba gasped. "Is he gonna be okay?"  
  
"I'm sure he will be, Mokuba," Seto replied, ruffling his brother's hair. "Yugi's a tough fighter. I don't think he'd go down easily."  
****  
"This is such a worry," Tea fretted, wringing her hands. "Yugi, please wake up," she whispered.  
  
As if in reply, his eyes opened. Everyone gasped. He had an eerily vacant expression that didn't change as he slowly sat up.  
  
"Hey, Yugi, man, are you in there?" Joey exclaimed, waving a hand in front of Yugi's eyes. Nothing happened.  
  
"It's as I feared," Yami Yugi said sadly. "He's been taken over by the zombies' powers."  
  
Tea gasped, her hand flying to her mouth. "Oh no! It can't be!"  
  
"Yami, there must be some way to get him back," Grampa Muto pleaded, looking shaken.  
  
Yami Yugi nodded slowly, tapping into the Millennium Puzzle and looking into Yugi's mind. After what seemed like hours, the ancient pharaoh looked up, relief evident in his eyes. "He's still in there," he announced. "They weren't able to complete the process. He only appears zombielike, but he won't respond to the wraiths' commands."  
  
Grampa Muto smiled. "That's my Yugi!"  
  
Tea still looked worried. "But will he stay zombielike?"  
  
"Not for long," Yami Yugi replied, activating the Millennium Puzzle again and banishing the evil power that had had its hold over Yugi. Free of the sinister force, Yugi toppled over onto the floor, and everyone rushed to help him up.  
  
"Yugi, are you alright?" Grampa Muto asked worriedly.  
  
Yugi blinked, his expressive violet eyes finally focusing. "Grampa . . . Yami . . ." He looked around at the others and managed a weak smile. "I . . . I think I'm okay," he said. "But . . . I don't remember what happened . . ."  
  
"That's probably for the best," Yami Yugi replied, gently laying a hand on the boy's shoulder.  
  
"I . . . just remember darkness . . . and evil," Yugi said slowly. "Yami, what happened to me?"  
  
"You were attacked by zombies," Yami Yugi said grimly. "You're very lucky to still be here. Normally they would've taken complete control over you and made you do their bidding. Somehow you managed to resist them."  
  
Yugi gasped. "Yami, if I had been completely taken over by them, would I have remained like that forever?"  
  
Yami Yugi sighed. "I don't know, Yugi," he said finally. "I don't know of any cases where the victim has been able to break the control, but that doesn't mean it's not possible. Still, I'm very glad that we didn't have to put that to the test."  
  
"Me too," Yugi grinned.  
  
"Oh man, it's great to have you back," Joey declared, giving Yugi a hug.  
  
Tea nodded. "We were so worried . . ."  
  
Yugi smiled. It was such a relief to be back with his friends and family again. He never again wanted to deal with such dark forces!  
  
No one was aware of the scarecrow looking in through the window, which soon turned around and left to report the recent events to its master.  
****  
"So, tell me again why we're here at the morgue at 2am," Joey said.  
  
"It's the only lead we've got," Tea replied. "We promised Mr. Graves we'd help him, and we have to find out what's going on!"  
  
"Especially before someone actually does fall under the zombies' spell," Bakura added. "The next person might not be as lucky as Yugi was." Grampa Muto had insisted that Yugi stay home and rest, and so Joey, Tristan, Tea, and Bakura had come to investigate here without him.  
  
"Alright, we're in," Tristan said triumphantly, hearing a click.  
  
"Let's check out the offices first," Tea suggested, taking the lead. "Kaiba told me that he hacked into Bob Fielding's computer this morning, but that anything suspicious had been removed from the hard drive. He said that maybe it was on a floppy disk instead." She looked slightly disgusted at the thought of hacking into someone's computer.  
  
Tristan noticed. "Normally, Tea, you'd be giving Kaiba quite the scolding for doing that," he grinned.  
  
"Don't change the subject, Tristan," Tea retorted. "Of course I don't think it's right to hack into someone's computer."  
  
"Oooh, touchy," Tristan teased.  
  
"Alright, let's get going," Bakura interrupted.  
  
Somewhere along the way, all four of them got separated from each other.  
  
"Oh no," Tea groaned, reaching the offices and finding that she was all alone. "This is just great—we're all lost now!"  
  
Tristan wound up in a closet next to a body bag. "Oh man . . . not exactly the company I was hoping for," he muttered, opening the door and running out.  
  
Joey found himself in the chapel. "Eh, not much going on in here," he mused, then suddenly started upon seeing a dark shadow. "On second thought, I could be wrong," he decided, ducking down low.  
  
That left Bakura, and he discovered uneasily that he was in the morgue. "Oh dear," he said to himself. "I don't think I like this very much . . ."  
  
[Dolt . . . there's nothing to be afraid of,] Yami Bakura said grouchily through their mental connection.  
  
Bakura backed up against a coffin and jumped. {I don't know,} he replied. {I feel like I'm disturbing the dead. . . .} He stumbled around, trying to find the door, and instead accidentally opened the freezer. He let out an ear-piercing scream and backed up, looking frantically for the door.  
  
[This is going to be a long night,] Yami Bakura growled.  
  
"Longer than you might think," a hideous voice hissed.  
  
"Who's there?" Bakura exclaimed, wondering how in the world they had heard his Yami's comment.  
  
"Your worst nightmare," was the reply.  
  
Yami Bakura growled and tried to take control of Bakura in order to fight this new enemy, but instead found himself being ripped from the Millennium Ring and thrown forcefully across the room. He heard Bakura shrieking in fear and pain and looked up to see him being danced through the air by a dark figure in black robes.  
  
"Put him down," the ancient tomb raider hissed, struggling to get up. Instantly five more of the creatures had surrounded him, beating him harshly to the floor. He reached out and grabbed a handful of black cloth defiantly. Suddenly pain exploded through him and he let go of the cloth, remembering no more. 


	6. The Situation Worsens

Around the funeral home, Tea, Tristan, and Joey all heard Bakura's cries of terror and they ran to find him.  
  
Tea screamed as she rounded a corner and crashed into someone. Then the other person screamed too.  
  
Silence. "Joey?" Tea asked finally.  
  
"Tea?"  
  
"Joey, you scared me!" Tea fumed.  
  
"Hey, what's up?" Tristan asked, suddenly appearing from the other direction.  
  
Both Tea and Joey jumped.  
  
"Tristan," Tea sighed.  
  
"Bakura screamed," Joey announced. "I think he might be in here." He opened the nearby door and went in, Tea and Tristan following closely.  
  
"It's the morgue room!" Tristan exclaimed.  
  
"It's a mess," Tea remarked, seeing slabs and coffins overturned everywhere.  
  
"Yaaaaaa!" Joey screamed. "A dead body!!!" He pointed shakily at something crumpled near the wall.  
  
Tea gasped and cringed, but Tristan went to investigate. "Well, technically he's been dead for 5,000 years, even tho he doesn't look it," he announced presently.  
  
Tea and Joey relaxed somewhat. "Yami Bakura," Joey realized.  
  
Tristan nodded. "He's been beat up pretty bad."  
  
Joey scratched his head. "Is anyone else feelin' deja vu here?"  
  
Tea gasped. "Does that mean that Bakura . . .?" She didn't finish.  
  
"I don't know, Tea," Tristan replied grimly.  
  
Tea knelt down next to the ancient tomb raider and shook him gently. "He has to tell us what happened to Bakura!" she declared.  
  
Yami Bakura stirred, hissing in pain.  
  
"Hey, are you alright, dude?" Tristan asked.  
  
Yami Bakura managed a weak growl and didn't answer the question. After a moment of silence, he gathered enough strength to rasp, "We were . . . attacked . . . dark wraiths . . ."  
  
"And they took Bakura?" Tea gasped.  
  
Yami Bakura shook his head. "I don't know. . . . They were . . . flinging him . . . through the air . . ." He fell limp again.  
  
"Oh man . . . these dark wraiths must wield some kind of real strong power," Tristan remarked. "I've never seen anyone get the better of this guy like this before."  
  
"Is he hurt bad?" Tea asked.  
  
"No more than Yami Yugi was, I don't think," Tristan replied. "He just needs a few minutes to recover. Meantime, let's look around just in case they didn't take Bakura."  
  
"Alright, man," Joey agreed.  
  
"I don't see him anywhere," Tea fretted. "If they left him here, where would they put him?"  
  
Tristan looked grim. "They could've put him on one of the freezer slabs," he replied.  
  
Tea looked horrified.  
  
"Everybody, check the freezer," Tristan directed.  
  
The following search turned up several dead bodies that had been stored in there, but luckily, no Bakura.  
  
"That was terrible!" Tea declared, looking squeamish. "I am never going near one of those freezers again!" She sighed. "They must've taken Bakura just like they took Yugi."  
  
"Not necessarily," Tristan replied. "There's still one other place he could be."  
  
"Uh, Tristan, are you thinkin' what I think you're thinkin'?" Joey asked.  
  
Tristan nodded, purposefully going up to the nearest coffin and unlocking it. Raising the lid, he gasped and stepped back, and Tea and Joey peered in. Bakura was laying curled up at the bottom, his eyes closed.  
  
"He's been choked," Tristan said grimly, pointing to several red marks around the other boy's neck.  
  
Tea's hand flew to her mouth. "Oh no . . . is he . . .?"  
  
"He'd better not be," Yami Bakura growled, limping over to them.  
  
Tristan picked up Bakura's wrist, checking for a pulse. "It's weak, but it's there," he announced. "He's breathing irregularly . . . Hey . . . what in the . . ." He noticed a paper in the silver-haired boy's hand.  
  
"What's that?" Tea demanded.  
  
Tristan gently pried Bakura's fingers away from the paper and held it up. "'This is a warning,'" he read. "'Get the point yet? Keep investigating and you'll all wind up six feet under.'"  
  
"That's like the note I found after Kaiba was electrocuted," Tea gasped.  
  
"Somethin's not adding up here," Joey remarked. "Why didn't they take Bakura when they had the chance?"  
  
"And why wasn't there a warning note with Yugi?" Tea added.  
  
"Do you get the feeling that there might be two separate plots going on here?" Tristan remarked, gently lifting Bakura out of the coffin with Yami Bakura's assistance.  
  
"Nothing makes sense," Tea said, throwing up her hands. "I don't know what to think, except that someone is seriously sick and twisted."  
  
"I think whoever did this hurt Bakura just enough to knock him out," Tristan said grimly as he and Yami Bakura carried the boy's limp body out of the morgue and down the hall to a soft couch. "He or she knew that we'd think to look for him in the coffin and we might be scared off the case."  
  
"Oh man, that's seriously uncool," Joey remarked angrily. "Poor Bakura!" He slammed his fist into his palm. "They're gonna be disappointed, 'cause I don't intend to back down! I'm gonna knock their nefarious plan to the ground!"  
  
Tea nodded determinedly in agreement. "We'll catch those losers," she vowed.  
  
"Bakura! Wake up!" Yami Bakura hissed in frustration. He looked at Tristan, his eyes flashing. "You're certain he'll be alright?"  
  
"Pretty sure," Tristan nodded. "He's breathing more normally now. They didn't want to kill Bakura . . . at least not yet. They just wanted to scare him . . . and us."  
  
"Well, it's working," Tea muttered. "Poor Bakura . . . being strangled and then locked in a coffin . . .!" She gently laid a hand on the unconscious boy's shoulder. "Please wake up, Bakura," she whispered.  
  
[You're starting to scare me, you dolt!] Yami Bakura yelled angrily through their mental bond. [Wake up already!!!] He resisted the urge to slap the boy awake, but instead shook him roughly. "Wake up, you dolt!!!" he yelled aloud, startling everyone around him.  
  
"Whoa, take it easy, man," Joey exclaimed, pushing the ancient thief back. "Don't hurt him."  
  
Yami Bakura growled angrily.  
  
Bakura's eyes flickered open and he looked around, confused. "Where am I?" he asked.  
  
"In the funeral home," Joey replied mischievously, "but don't worry, pal—you're not here as a customer."  
  
Bakura chuckled and sat up, rubbing his neck.  
  
"You must be feeling okay if you can laugh," Tristan remarked.  
  
"I've felt better," Bakura admitted. "Was it just a nightmare?"  
  
"Was what just a nightmare, Bakura?" Tea asked.  
  
"I was being thrown through the air," Bakura said softly. "Then something grabbed me by the neck and wouldn't let go." He shuddered.  
  
"That was no nightmare, you dolt," Yami Bakura snapped. "That's what those demonic wraiths did to you. Where did you think those marks around your neck came from?"  
  
"I . . . I don't know," Bakura said, his eyes wide.  
  
"Well, I think we've been here long enough," Tea said, laying a hand comfortingly on Bakura's shoulder. "Why don't we all go home?"  
  
"Fine with me," Tristan declared.  
  
"Yeah, let's get outta this creepy joint," Joey agreed. He looked around. "Eh, just one thing—what's Graves gonna think when he sees this mess?"  
  
"I would think that someone's been raising Cain in here!"   
  
Everyone turned to see Mr. Graves standing in the doorway, watching them. "Do you mind telling me what's been happening? And why you're here at 4am?"  
  
"Well, uh, we were trying to figure out what that scarecrow might have wanted in here," Joey said, "so we came over to look around. In the process, Bakura here wound up in a scuffle with some kinda weird wraiths."  
  
"Wraiths!" Mr. Graves screamed. "Scarecrows, wraiths . . . I'm cursed!!" He pointed at Yami Bakura. "And who are you? I don't remember seeing you before."  
  
Yami Bakura smirked. "I'm a tomb raider from ancient Egypt."  
  
Mr. Graves threw his hands in the air in horror. "Merciful heavens!!"  
  
Joey grinned widely, while at the same time digging painfully into Yami Bakura's shoulder with his fingers. "Eh, he loves to joke around," he fibbed.  
  
"Well, I don't find it funny!" Mr. Graves grumped.  
  
"Eh, well, I think we'll be goin' now, if you don't mind, sir," Joey said.  
  
"Fine, fine," Mr. Graves sighed, waving a hand dismissively.  
  
"We're sorry about all the trouble, Mr. Graves," Tea apologized as they headed for the door.  
  
"Oh, it's quite alright," he replied in a resigned tone. "I just wish we could uncover what's really going on around here."  
  
"We all do," Tristan sighed.  
****  
The next day during lunch at school, Yugi and the others tried to decide what to do next.  
  
"It's almost a dead-end case," Yugi sighed. "I feel like we're just waiting around for the next disaster to happen." He turned to Bakura. "One thing I can't figure out is why they didn't take you, Bakura. Instead they left you there in that . . . thing with a warning note."  
  
"I know," Bakura said, his brown eyes wide. "I can't figure it out either. This mystery just isn't making sense."  
  
"You can say that again," Tea groaned.  
****  
A dark figure turned to his minions, his eyes flashing angrily. "Imbeciles. You were supposed to grab Yugi Muto!"  
  
"We tried, sir," the lead wraith hissed. "But he was too strong-willed. The zombies couldn't overpower him, no matter how they tried."  
  
"Yes, yes, I know," the figure growled. "It must be that Millennium Puzzle he has. Its powers protected him." He sighed. "And even with what we've done to him and those other two kids, they still aren't backing down!" He paused. "Do you think you can handle a simpler assignment?"  
  
"And what would that be, sir?" the wraith asked.  
  
"Capture some of the others instead. I know who I want. They'll do the job for me perfectly." He gave two names to the wraith. "Can you handle that?"  
  
"Of course, sir." The wraith sneered maliciously. "It's as good as done."  
****  
Joey looked out the window curiously. Had he just seen something dart across the lawn? No, that was ridiculous—there was no one around. But still . . . he couldn't shake the feeling that something was out there.  
  
Grabbing a rolling pin to use as defense, he opened the kitchen door and stepped out into the yard. He glanced around nervously. Nothing.  
  
"I'm just bein' silly," he told himself. "There's nothing around here. I might as well go back . . ."  
  
Suddenly something horrible and eerie grabbed the boy and held him tightly.  
  
"Hey! What do you think you're doin'??! Let me go!!" Joey yelled, kicking and flailing wildly. He tried to use the rolling pin, but as soon as it hit whatever was holding him captive, it disintegrated. Joey's eyes went wide. "Oh man!!" he gasped.  
  
That was the last thing he remembered as something brushed across his face and he passed out.  
****  
Mokuba sighed, picking his way through the cemetery that was located just to the right of his school. The chauffeur was late today and Mokuba had decided to hang out in the cemetery while he waited.  
  
Suddenly he gasped and stood still as a decrepit hand rose up from the ground. His heart beat wildly. What was happening?!  
  
Before he could quite comprehend it, a horrible creature that could only be a zombie was standing in front of him, grinning evilly. Mokuba backed up, his eyes wide. "What do you want?!" he demanded.  
  
He backed up right into another one, which grabbed him fiercely.  
  
"You let me go!!" Mokuba screamed. "When I tell my big brother what you did, you're gonna be so sorry . . .!"  
  
He trailed off, feeling lightheaded. He tried hard to stay awake but found it impossible. Seto . . . help me! was his last conscious thought. 


	7. Friend Against Friend, Brother Against B...

NOTE: Kleenex warning for this chapter!! **sniffle**  
  
  
Yugi hung up the phone, his face ashen white.  
  
"Yugi! What's wrong?" Tea gasped.  
  
"Joey's missing," Yugi replied. "He disappeared just like those two students did—without a trace."  
  
"Oh no," Tea moaned. "This is terrible!"  
  
Yugi nodded. "And I don't have a single clue about how we can find him." His eyes filled with tears. "Tea, what if the zombies got him?"  
  
"Oh Yugi . . ." Tea laid a hand on her friend's shoulder. "We have to hope for the best."  
  
"I know, but . . ." Yugi heaved a sigh. "In light of everything that's been happening lately, I'm just so worried about him . . ."  
  
A tear fell from Tea's eye. "I am, too, Yugi," she whispered. "I am, too."  
  
That's when Tristan and Bakura came in. "What's happening?" Tristan asked, instantly seeing that something was amiss by Yugi's and Tea's stricken expressions.  
  
Quickly Yugi and Tea informed them of the latest development.  
  
"Oh man . . . Joey's missing?" Tristan slammed his fist into his palm. "We've gotta find him!"  
  
"This is terrible," Bakura exclaimed, shaking his head.  
  
That's when the phone rang again. "Hello, Muto residence," Yugi said, praying that it was news about Joey.  
  
"Yugi?" It was Seto Kaiba. "Have you seen Mokuba?"  
  
"Mokuba?" Yugi gasped. "No, I haven't. Why?"  
  
"He's missing," Seto replied.  
  
"Oh no!" Yugi exclaimed. "Joey's missing too!"  
  
There was a brief silence. "Well, this is a fine turn of events," Seto remarked sarcastically. "Let me know if you see Mokuba."  
  
"We will," Yugi assured him.  
  
"Good luck finding Wheeler," Seto said and hung up.  
  
"What is it now, Yugi?" Tea asked.  
  
"More bad news?" Tristan wondered.  
  
Yugi nodded grimly. "That was Kaiba," he told them. "Mokuba's missing too."  
****  
The dark figure sneered, looking over the two prisoners the wraiths had brought back. "Excellent," he cackled. "You've done exactly as I wanted. I trust there were no problems this time?"  
  
"No problems, sir," the lead wraith replied. "They are completely under the zombies' spell."  
  
The man laughed, staring into the prisoners' vacant eyes. "Perfect! And you've given them their orders?"  
  
"Yes sir," the wraith told him. "Should I turn them loose to carry those orders out now?"  
  
"Yes, do." The man smiled wickedly. Everything was going according to plan.  
****  
"Where could Joey be?" Yugi worried, opening the door to the game shop. He and the others had just finished a fruitless search of the neighborhood. As he walked inside, he let out a gasp. "Joey!"  
  
"Huh?" Instantly Tea, Tristan, and Bakura were also inside the shop. Sure enough, Joey was standing by the counter, as if he'd been waiting for them. He looked up, his eyes blank and empty.  
  
Everyone gasped. "Joey!" they all exclaimed.  
  
"It can't be!" Tea cried.  
  
"Whoa! He's been turned into a zombie!" Tristan yelled.  
  
Joey slowly advanced on Yugi, no recognition evident in his brown eyes.  
  
"What's he trying to do?" Tristan demanded.  
  
Joey tackled Yugi, bringing him to the floor and wrapping his fingers around the other's neck.  
  
"Joey! What are you doing?" Yugi exclaimed. "Don't you know me, Joey? . . . Joey, stop!!!"  
  
"He's trying to kill Yugi!" Tristan burst out.  
  
Instantly Yugi summoned his Yami, then he grabbed Joey's hands and pried them away from his neck. "Joey, you must stop this," he ordered. "You can break free of this evil power." He only prayed that was true. Surely Joey was still in there somewhere . . . wasn't he?  
  
In reply Joey pulled out a knife and held it dangerously close to Yugi's chest.  
  
Everyone gasped. "Joey, no!" Tea cried. "You can't!!"  
  
Joey paid no attention.  
  
Yugi snatched the other boy's wrist, wrenching his arm and the deadly weapon away from him. "Joey, listen to me," he pleaded, looking into his friend's empty eyes. "Come back, Joey. We can't lose you."  
  
Joey pulled his arm free and held the knife up again.  
  
"He's not there," Bakura exclaimed. "Yugi's not getting through to him!"  
  
"If he doesn't get through soon, I don't even want to think of the consequences," Tristan said gravely.  
****  
"Any sign of him?" Seto asked worriedly.  
  
"I'm afraid not, Mr. Kaiba," the chauffeur replied.  
  
"Wait!" Seto said abruptly, seeing someone walking down the edge of the deserted road. "Stop!" he ordered. The chauffeur obeyed.  
  
Seto threw the door open. "Mokuba!" he called.  
  
The young boy looked up and walked toward the limo mechanically, his eyes vacant.  
  
"Mokuba!" Seto gasped. "What happened to you?!"  
  
Mokuba climbed into the limo and the chauffeur started the engine up again. The small boy pulled out a deadly knife.  
  
"Mokuba!" Seto exclaimed. "What are you doing?!"  
  
Mokuba turned to Seto, raising the knife threateningly.  
  
Seto swiftly grabbed Mokuba's wrist, restraining him. "Mokuba! It's me, Seto," he pleaded, looking into the boy's empty eyes. "What's wrong, Mokuba? Why don't you know me?"  
  
Mokuba struggled to pull his wrist free and wound up scraping his brother's arm with the knife. Seto loosened his grip, crying out in pain.  
  
"Mr. Kaiba, sir, what's going on?" the chauffeur demanded, adjusting the rear view mirror to look back at them.  
  
"Stop the limo," Seto ordered, dodging another swipe of the knife. "Something's happened to Mokuba!"  
  
Mokuba stood up in the limo, raising the knife towards Seto's heart. The elder Kaiba wrestled the boy to the floor, trying without much success to pull the weapon out of his hand.  
  
At the same moment, Seto felt the limo lurch and suddenly bang into something hard. He fell backward, hitting his head on the door and falling unconscious.  
****  
When Seto finally opened his eyes, he felt as if he'd been asleep for a long time. It was dark all around him and it was raining outside. Was he still in the limo? He looked around. He was. The thing was turned on its side, but somehow he had managed to stay in it during the collision, even tho he hadn't been wearing his seat belt at the time.  
  
"What happened?" he said aloud, not really expecting an answer. He didn't get one. "Mokuba! Where are you?" he called frantically. His eyes narrowed angrily, remembering how his brother had tried to kill him. It had been as if Mokuba had been hypnotized or brainwashed. Whoever had done that to his sweet, innocent brother was going to pay.  
  
His blood ran cold. What if Mokuba had been thrown from the limo? The chauffeur was nowhere in sight either.   
  
Looking above him, Seto managed to pry the door open and climbed out. "Mokuba! Answer me, Mokuba!" He looked around, trying to see through the pouring rain, and turned pale. He could see a small body lying motionless in the road and instantly was at his brother's side, unable to stop from crying. "Mokuba . . . little brother . . . it's me, Seto," he whispered, pleading for an answer. Unable to find any serious broken bones or other injuries, he took Mokuba in his arms, holding him close. "Mokuba, speak to me," he begged. "Tell me you're alright . . . that you know me . . ." He trailed off. How long had Mokuba been laying in the road with the rain beating down on him? He was so still . . . "Help," Seto prayed. "Somebody help!"  
  
He felt a gentle hand on his shoulder and looked up. "No . . . it can't be . . ." he gasped. Standing shimmering before him was Kasumi.  
  
"So we meet again, Seto Kaiba," she said softly.  
  
"So we do," he replied, and paused. "The last time we met, you told me you were around to make sure Mokuba and I were never separated. But what about this time?" he demanded, wrapping Mokuba in his trenchcoat, trying to warm him up. "What about this time, huh? Someone took Mokuba over and made him try to kill me, and now what if he's . . ."  
  
Kasumi smiled gently, kneeling down next to Seto and hugging him comfortingly. "What happened today was a tragedy, but you can both rise from it."  
  
"You mean he's not . . .?" Seto looked hopeful. He brushed the long bangs away from his brother's closed eyes. "Will he . . . will he know me?" he asked in a whisper.  
  
Kasumi sighed and smiled sadly. "For that, we will just have to wait and see," she replied.  
****  
"Joey, stop!" Tea screamed, trying to pull Joey away. "Yugi's your best friend. Don't you remember him, Joey? Don't you remember any of us?"  
  
Joey shoved Tea away and turned back to Yugi, the knife still in his hand.  
  
"Joey, you must come back," Yugi pleaded. "You must overcome this evil power that has taken hold of you."  
  
"Yugi, can't you do anything?" Tea asked.  
  
Yugi shook his head. "It's Joey's battle. He must fight it himself."  
  
"But he's trying to kill you!" Tea burst out.  
  
Yugi looked deep into Joey's eyes. "Joey, can you hear me? You must fight this, Joey."  
  
The hand with the knife shook, as if Joey was suddenly indecisive.  
  
"Hey, maybe Yugi's finally getting through to him," Tristan said hopefully.  
  
Yugi smiled gently. "So . . . what will it be?"  
  
The knife clattered to the floor and Joey collapsed to his knees, sobbing. "Yugi . . . oh man, Yugi, I'm so sorry . . ." He looked up, his brown eyes alive and alert again. "You know that wasn't really me, dontcha, pal?" He shook his head. "I'd never hurt you, Yugi."  
  
Yugi laid a hand on Joey's shoulder comfortingly. "It's alright, Joey. Of course I know." 


	8. A New Lead

Joey couldn't stop crying. The others had hardly ever seen him so emotional. "Oh man . . . I can't believe I almost killed my best buddy . . . Yugi, man, I'm so sorry . . ."  
  
With Joey back to normal, Yami Yugi returned to the Millennium Puzzle, and Yugi tried to comfort his friend. "Joey, it's okay," he assured him. "We all know you'd never hurt me. You couldn't control what your body was doing." He smiled. "But you did manage to overcome the evil power, Joey. And according to my Yami, you're the first one who has."  
  
"Really, Yug?" Joey was starting to calm down.  
  
Yugi nodded. "Really, Joey. I knew you could do it."  
  
Joey smiled and embraced his friend. "Thanks, man. You're the best!"  
  
"Hey, before things get too mushy here, we'd better figure out what to do next," Tristan announced.  
  
Joey looked up. "Oh . . . yeah."  
  
"Joey, what's the last thing you remember?" Bakura asked.  
  
Joey rubbed his head. "Eh, I don't remember," he said sheepishly.  
  
"That's okay, Joey," Yugi smiled. "You've been through a lot." He gasped. "With everything that happened in the last few minutes, I completely forgot—Mokuba's missing too!"  
  
"Mokuba?" Joey repeated. "Oh man, Yug . . . do you think he suffered the same fate that I did?"  
  
Yugi nodded grimly. "I'm afraid that's a strong possibility." He picked up the phone and dialed the number for Kaiba's mansion.  
  
After several rings, the phone was picked up. "Hello, Seto Kaiba's residence," a cheerful maid answered.  
  
"Um, hi," Yugi said, a little caught off guard by the maid's bubbly voice. "Can I speak to Seto Kaiba?"  
  
The maid suddenly burst into tears. "No, I'm sorry, he's not here, he hasn't been here for hours, and I'm just afraid somethin' horrible happened to him!!"  
  
Yugi wasn't sure what to do with the crying maid on the phone. "Is Mokuba still missing?" he ventured.  
  
"Yes, he is," the sobbing maid replied. "Mr. Kaiba went out lookin' for him HOURS ago! I'm just so afraid they both got hurt, or killed even!"  
  
A second voice came on. "Velma, you're getting overly emotional again," a stern woman's voice said. "You'd better go lay down. I'm sure Mr. Kaiba will be just fine."  
  
Velma put the phone down and ran off wailing. Yugi blinked in surprise.  
  
"I'm sorry about that," the stern woman sighed. "Velma is extremely fond of Mr. Kaiba and she just falls to pieces whenever she thinks something may have happened to him."  
  
"Oh, I see," Yugi said, not sure of what else to say. "Um . . . If you don't mind my asking, how long has he been gone?"  
  
"A few hours," the woman replied. "Frankly . . ." She lowered her voice. "I'm not so sure he's alright myself, but I'm not about to get Velma more worried than she already is."  
  
Yugi hung up with her shortly afterwards, looking worried.  
  
"Bad news, I take it," Joey said.  
  
Yugi nodded. "Now both Kaibas are missing."  
  
"Maybe Kaiba's just lookin' for Mokuba," Joey said with a shrug.  
  
"Yeah, he was, but he's been gone for hours according to the maid," Yugi replied.  
  
"Where could he be?" Tea wondered.  
****  
Seto Kaiba wandered down the road, Mokuba's little body in his arms, anxiously wishing for some kind of civilization. Kasumi had shown him that Mokuba miraculously had not been seriously injured physically in the accident, so Seto's main worry was that Mokuba would remain in the trancelike state forever. Would he never again come home to find Mokuba waiting anxiously by the door or hear him say how much he loved his brother? Would he instead come home to find this hypnotized, vacant version of Mokuba, who might try to kill him again?  
  
The rain had stopped, but Seto could tell that it would probably start up again very soon. He wanted to get Mokuba to some kind of shelter before that happened. Was that the city up ahead? Seto breathed a prayer of thanks and hurried on ahead. "Please remember me, Mokuba," he whispered.  
****  
"Yugi, man, I don't know what to do about this case," Joey sighed. He, Yugi, Tea, Tristan, and Bakura were just preparing to head up to Yugi's home above the game shop and trying to figure out the best course of action for solving their mystery. "For the last couple of days, we've just been runnin' around gettin' knocked around."  
  
Tristan snickered at Joey's choice of words.  
  
"I know," Yugi agreed with a sigh of his own. "I wish I knew what to do. But a case like this is just so . . . mind-boggling," he finished.  
  
Suddenly the door flew open and Seto Kaiba was standing there with his trenchcoat blowing in the wind, his long bangs plastered against his forehead by the rain, and a small body in his arms.  
  
"Kaiba!" everyone exclaimed, startled.  
  
"Where've you been, man?" Joey demanded.  
  
"No time to explain," Seto said abruptly, coming in. "Mokuba's hurt."  
  
"Eh, shouldn't you be takin' him to the hospital then?" Joey asked, confused.  
  
"He's not hurt physically," Seto replied.  
  
Yugi gasped. "Oh no . . . you mean the zombies got him?"  
  
"I don't have time for nonsense, Yugi," Seto snapped. "He was brain-washed. I brought him here to get him out of the storm. He's been out in it long enough to catch pneumonia."  
  
"Kaiba, listen to me," Yugi said firmly, summoning his Yami, "brain-washing is what zombies do to people. They put people under their spell and make them do whatever the zombies' controllers want done. They have no will of their own anymore, just like the undead themselves."  
  
"Stop, Yugi. Stop." Seto's blue eyes were shining. "Just tell me how to reverse it." A tear fell from his eye and splashed on his brother's pale face. Normally he would never show emotions like this around people, especially Yugi and his friends, but when Mokuba was hurt like this, he didn't care who saw him cry.  
  
Yugi looked sad. "I can't tell you, Kaiba. I don't know how. Only the person affected can break themself free from their inner prison."  
  
Seto sank into a nearby chair, still cradling his little brother in his arms. "Mokuba . . . little brother . . . can you hear me? . . . Please don't forget me, Mokuba," he added in a voice so low only he and (he hoped) Mokuba could hear it.  
  
The young boy stirred, his blue-gray eyes opening.  
  
"Mokuba?" Seto looked hopeful. "Do you know me?"  
  
Instantly Mokuba grinned and embraced his brother. "Seto! You're okay! I was so worried . . ." He started to cry. "Some awful thing took control of my body and tried to kill you!"  
  
Seto bristled at the thought of anyone doing such a despicable act. He hugged his brother tightly. "It's alright, Mokuba. They didn't get away with it," he said softly. His eyes narrowed. "And we're not going to let them try it on anyone else."  
  
"That's right!" Joey spoke up. "We're gonna shut their sick little operation down!"  
  
"And I believe I might have something that might help," Grampa Muto announced, entering the room.  
  
"What's that, Grampa?" Yugi asked curiously, feeling his Yami disappear back into the Millennium Puzzle.  
  
"This." Grampa Muto held up the newspaper. On the front page was the headline PSYCHIC FORESAW SCARECROW INVASION.  
  
"Whoa, man, that looks like somethin' right outta the National Enquirer," Joey remarked.  
  
"Yeah, I don't buy into all that psychic stuff," Tristan agreed.  
  
"I know it sounds ridiculous," Grampa Muto nodded, "but it's still a possible lead. You might want to question this psychic."  
  
"You're right, Grampa," Yugi said, taking the paper. "Even if she's a phony, she might have something to do with the scarecrows being unleashed."  
  
"Well, I suppose it couldn't hurt to try," Bakura said slowly.  
  
Tea took the paper and scanned through the article. "Her name is Madame Fiona from that fortune telling place here in town," she announced.  
  
"Here she is in the phone book," Bakura said.  
  
"I'll call and see if we can set up an appointment to talk with her," Tea said, taking the phone and dialing the number Bakura showed to her. The others listened to Tea's side of the following conversation with great interest.  
  
"Hello? Madame Fiona? . . . Hi, this is Tea Gardner from Domino High School . . . Yes, my friends and I saw the article in the newspaper . . . We were wondering if we could talk with you about what you saw . . . Tomorrow evening at eight?" Tea turned to look at the others to see if that was acceptable. They all looked at each other and nodded. Tea turned back to the phone. "Yes, that would be great! Thanks, Madame Fiona . . . Um, excuse me?" Everyone perked up, hearing Tea's suddenly confused tone. "Oh, uh, sure, Madame Fiona," she said, blinking in surprise. "Don't worry, we won't. . . . See you tomorrow at eight then. . . Yes, thank you again! Goodbye." Tea hung up. "Well, she's agreed to meet with us tomorrow at eight then," she announced. "At her house."  
  
"What was all that 'don't worry, we won't' stuff?" Joey asked.  
  
Tea sighed. "It was kind of strange," she admitted, "but Madame Fiona was asking me to make sure that none of us snacked on garlic before coming over."  
  
Everyone blinked.  
  
"Garlic?" Joey repeated. "Eh, just why would we want to snack on that stuff?"  
  
Tea shrugged. "I don't know. It seemed odd to me, too."  
  
"Maybe Madame Fiona just doesn't like the smell," Tristan suggested.  
  
"Who would?" Tea muttered.  
  
"Hey, hold on just a minute!" Joey exclaimed. "Garlic—isn't that one of the things you can use to defeat vampyres?"  
  
Everyone turned to look at Joey.  
  
"Wheeler, that is the most ridiculous thing I've heard you say today," Seto grumbled. "There's no such thing as vampyres."  
  
"Oh yeah? Even you havta admit that there's zombies now, don't you?" Joey said defensively. "And you saw those scarecrows walkin' around, too."  
  
Seto simply raised an eyebrow at Joey and replied, "But vampyres, Wheeler?" He paused. "There's probably a completely logical explanation for the living scarecrows. It could be a publicity stunt."  
  
Joey rolled his eyes. "You know, Kaiba, you may have mellowed enough to hang out with us sometimes, but you still have trouble believin' in the totally weird and freaky!" He gestured wildly with his hands.  
  
Seto only laughed in his wiseguy way.  
  
"Joey, your vampyre theory is a little much," Tea sighed.  
  
"Yeah, well, we'll see if you're still mockin' me after that lady decides to have us over as a snack," Joey replied defensively.  
  
"Joooeeey!" everyone groaned loudly.  
****  
The next night, which was mostly clouded over but with a full moon shining through in classic Halloween fashion, Yugi, Joey, Tristan, Tea, and Bakura all walked to the address Madame Fiona had given them.  
  
"I must admit, I'm feeling rather nervous about this," Bakura said softly.  
  
"After everything Joey's been saying, I don't blame you," Tea replied. She looked up at an eerie-looking mansion in front of them. "Is this it?" she gasped.  
  
"I believe so, Tea," Yugi confirmed, pulling out the paper with the address on it. "The address matches." He checked his watch. "And it's eight exactly. Let's do it!"  
  
"Not without us, you don't."  
  
Everyone turned to look. Joey jumped and freaked out as Seto and Mokuba seemingly materialized from deep in the dark shadows. "Yaaaaaa!!!"  
  
Seto smirked. "Afraid, Wheeler? Did you think I was the boogie man stalking you? Or maybe a vampyre anxious to drink your blood?"  
  
Angry now, Joey grabbed Seto by the collar of his trenchcoat and glared into the other boy's deep-blue eyes. "Watch it, wiseguy. You want a piece of me??!"  
  
Seto looked back in a blase sort of way. "Watch it yourself, Wheeler. You know I can flip you over onto the ground if I want to."  
  
"Alright, you two," Yugi laughed. "Now isn't the time for a judo lesson."  
  
Joey resignedly let go of Seto, muttering something unintelligible.  
  
"Where did you come from, Kaiba?" Yugi asked curiously.  
  
"Our limo is parked around the corner," Mokuba piped up.  
  
"That's right," Seto nodded. "We came over under the cover of darkness. The shadows can be a very useful ally when one doesn't want to be seen."  
  
"Or when one wants to give someone a heart attack?" Joey growled.  
  
Seto raised an eyebrow at Joey but didn't say anything.  
  
"Cool it, you two," Tea sighed, rolling her eyes.  
  
Yugi laughed. "Yeah, we'd better keep our appointment and go knock on Madame Fiona's door."  
  
They went through the creaky gate, up the squeaky steps, and onto the porch, and Yugi used the bat-shaped door knocker.  
  
"Kinda freaky-lookin'," Joey remarked. "This place is givin' me the heebie-jeebies!"  
  
Then the door slowly opened. 


	9. The Mysterious Mansion

NOTE: "Vampyre" is not an incorrect spelling. I believe it's a British spelling of the word, but if I'm wrong, I'm sure my British readers will correct me ^_~  
  
  
An attractive woman who looked almost ageless stood in the lighted doorway, her long, dark hair cascading over her shoulders. "Good evening," she purred in a mysteriously accented voice. "I'm Madame Fiona. Won't you all come in?" She gestured with a perfectly manicured hand, the long nails painted blood red.  
  
"Yes. Thank you," Yugi said, summoning his Yami and entering first, with the six others following close behind.  
  
"Just go right ahead and sit anywhere," Madame Fiona told them, and they all took a look around at her living room, which was oddly furnished with such things as bat clocks and blood red furniture. "I was just having a snack," she said, picking up a glass with a red liquid in it. "Would you care to join me?"  
  
Bakura suddenly felt dizzy and lightheaded, especially when he saw Madame Fiona raise the glass to her lips and drink from it. He collapsed on the soft couch behind him, breathing heavily. Tea quickly sat next to him, trying to calm him down.  
  
"No, thank you," Yugi replied, looking rather queasy himself. Everything Joey said about vampyres must be getting to me, he thought with a sigh. I'm sure she's just drinking Kool-Aid or something like that, but still . . .  
  
"So, I understand you wish to speak to me about my visions," Madame Fiona stated.  
  
"That's right, Madame Fiona," Tea nodded. "Have you had more than one about the scarecrows?"  
  
"Yes, Miss Gardner," Madame Fiona replied. "I had my first one about a month before Mr. Graves reported the break in. Since then, I have had two or more revelations about the straw men every week."  
  
"Whoa, that's a lot," Joey commented, sitting gingerly on the arm of the couch.  
  
"What do you see in these revelations, Madame Fiona?" Yugi asked.  
  
"I see much darkness," Madame Fiona said quietly. "And much suffering and pain."  
  
"Have you seen any way to stop them?" Joey asked curiously.  
  
Madame Fiona shook her head. "Not yet. But that does not mean I won't in the near future." She set her now-empty glass down on a nearby coffee table. "As a matter of fact, I feel another vision coming on now."  
  
With that she began to rock back and forth, chanting something under her breath.  
  
"Eh, has she cracked up?" Joey wondered, raising an eyebrow.  
  
"I think she's gone into a trance," Bakura said, wide-eyed.  
  
"I foresee . . . two of you will meet a grisly end," Madame Fiona intoned.  
  
"Oooh, I'm shaking in my Nikes," Joey muttered.  
  
"It will be you, Joseph Wheeler, and you, Seto Kaiba!" Madame Fiona continued, pointing at each of them in turn. "You will both die before the month's end has arrived!"  
  
Joey's eyes went wide. Maybe he shouldn't dismiss this so lightly, he thought with a gulp, tugging on his shirt collar.  
  
"My brother's not gonna die!" Mokuba said defensively.   
  
"Of course I'm not," Seto agreed. "She can't really see into the future, Mokuba. That's nonsense. She's just trying to make us think she knows what's going to happen."  
  
With that, Madame Fiona snapped out of her trance. "Oh my," she said, "I was not expecting that kind of vision. You two boys had better be very careful," she warned.  
  
"Eh, tell me, Madame Fiona," Joey said, "are your revelations all things that are gonna happen, or are some of 'em just things that *might* happen?"  
  
"So far, Joseph, all of my predictions have come true," Madame Fiona replied, standing up. "I could use another snack," she announced, heading off towards the kitchen. "Are you certain you wouldn't like one too?"  
  
"We're fine, thank you," Yugi said.  
  
When Madame Fiona had left the room, Joey turned to Yugi. "Hey, Yugi, man, what do you think about her?"  
  
Yugi smiled. "You're not going to die, Joey, and neither is Kaiba. She couldn't predict that."  
  
"Hey, I'm not worried," Joey bluffed. "Why in the heck would I be worried?"  
  
"Wheeler, we can all see that you are," Seto informed him.  
  
"That's crazy," Joey said, waving a hand dismissively. "I don't believe that nonsense. I've never believed that psychic garbage."  
  
That's when Madame Fiona returned. "I just remembered an important appointment I must be getting to," she announced.  
  
"Well, that's okay, Madame Fiona, we'll just be leaving now," Tea said, standing up.  
  
"Thank you for taking the time to speak with us," Yugi added.  
  
"You must come back for lunch sometime," Madame Fiona purred.  
  
"Eh, I don't know about that," Joey said with a fake smile. "We might wind up bein' lunch!" he hissed in an undertone, shoving Seto, Tristan, and Bakura out the door.  
****  
"So, Yug, what now?" Joey asked as they walked down the street.  
  
Yugi sighed. "I'm afraid I don't know." He turned to Seto. "Kaiba, were you in a car accident yesterday?" he asked seriously.  
  
Seto started. "Yugi, how . . .?" He glanced at the Millennium Puzzle and didn't finish the sentence. "What's your point, Yugi?"  
  
"Did your chauffeur disappear?"  
  
"Yes, he did," Seto replied guardedly, raising an eyebrow. "The rescue team never could find him."  
  
"Kaiba, I believe that it was a dark wraith disguised as your chauffeur," Yugi said gravely. "He crashed the limo on purpose to try to kill or seriously injure you."  
  
"That's ridiculous," Seto snapped.  
  
"This whole case is ridiculous, man," Joey piped up.  
  
"And speaking of ridiculous . . ." Tristan pointed up ahead. "What in the heck is that??!"  
  
Everyone turned to look. Up ahead was a dark, crumbling mansion that looked as though it hadn't been occupied since the 1700's.  
  
"That wasn't there before!" Mokuba gasped.  
  
"And who's that running across the lawn?" Tea exclaimed.  
  
"Look at that! They're breaking in through an upstairs window," Bakura said, wide-eyed.  
  
"Eh, why not just use a downstairs window?" Joey wondered, blinking. He turned to look at Yugi, who was walking ahead determinedly. "Oh no. Oh man, Yug, are you thinkin' what I think you're thinkin'?"  
  
"We should go after that intruder," Yugi announced. "He was obviously up to no good."  
  
"Oh man . . . I knew you were gonna say that," Joey groaned.  
  
Yugi led them through a graveyard on the front lawn and up to the porch.  
  
"Come on, man, this place must be abandoned," Joey protested. "What would we wanna go in here for?"  
  
"This could have something to do with our case," Yugi replied, looking for a way in. "The front door's locked."  
  
"I could fix that." Seto smirked, holding up a lock pick.  
  
Joey backed up, looking around him, and suddenly fell through an opening in the porch floor. "Yaaaaaa!!!" he screamed, disappearing from sight.  
  
Everyone turned to look, startled. "Where did he go?" Tea exclaimed.  
  
"I believe that must be the entrance to the cellar," Bakura replied, looking down into the gaping, perfectly square hole.  
  
Seto rolled his eyes. "You can always count on Wheeler to get into some kind of trouble."  
  
"Joey! Are you alright?" Yugi called down.  
  
There was a long silence, then, "Yeah, Yug, I'm fine," Joey called back. "I just crashed on some kinda bag of wheat or somethin'."  
  
"Can you find a door or some way out?"  
  
There was another pause. "Here's a ladder," Joey announced.  
  
"It probably leads to the kitchen," Bakura mused.  
  
"I'm gonna climb it and see what happens," Joey said.  
  
"Be careful, Joey," Yugi warned. "That ladder could be very rickety."  
  
"Hey, piece of cake," Joey replied. The others could hear him climbing up the ladder. Suddenly they heard a dull crash.  
  
"What was that?" Tea gasped.  
  
"Maybe it was Joey," Tristan replied grimly.  
  
"Joey!" Yugi called into the hole. There was no reply. "We have to get inside," he declared. "Joey might be hurt."  
  
"There's an open window over here," Mokuba announced. He had wandered to the far side of the porch, around the side of the dilapidated manor.  
  
"Good work, Mokuba," Yugi congratulated. "Alright, I'll go in first," he said, getting ready to climb in.  
  
"Yugi, be careful," Tea told him, looking worried.  
  
Yugi smiled reassuringly. "I'll be fine, Tea." He disappeared inside.  
  
"Yugi, are you okay?" Tea rushed to the window to look in.  
  
"Yes, I'm alright, Tea," Yugi assured her. "I'm in what used to be the drawing room, I think. There's some old pieces of furniture in here with white sheets draped over them." He paused. "And as far as I can see, the coast is clear. It's safe to come in."  
  
Soon all six of them were standing in the crumbling drawing room. "Now be careful and stay close to me," Yugi warned. "There could be loose floorboards in a place like this."  
  
No one ever knew how it happened exactly, but one minute all of them were together, and in the next, they had split up into two groups.  
  
"Tea?" Yugi asked. No answer.  
  
"Whoa, Tea's gone," Tristan announced, looking around. "And so's Bakura!"  
  
"And my brother!" Mokuba gasped.  
  
"What?!" After a swift headcount, Yugi could see that they were only too right. "But where could they have gone?" he wondered.  
  
"They just disappeared," Tristan exclaimed, "right into thin air!"  
  
"There has to be an explanation," Yugi replied, his eyes narrowing.  
  
"Where could they be?" Mokuba wondered frantically.  
  
"Don't worry, Mokuba, we'll find them," Yugi assured him determinedly.  
****  
Tea looked around. "Yugi?" she called. "Yugi, where are you?" She walked ahead and bumped into someone. "Yugi?" she said hopefully.  
  
"No, Tea, it's me," Seto Kaiba replied. "Both Yugi and Mokuba are gone."  
  
"And Tristan too," Bakura spoke up, wide-eyed.  
  
Tea sighed. "So it's just the three of us?"  
  
"It looks that way," Bakura replied.  
  
"But where could Yugi and the others be?" Tea fretted. "It doesn't make sense! We were all following Yugi through that drawing room!"  
  
"We're not in any drawing room anymore," Seto said grimly. "It looks more like the kitchen, from what I can see."  
  
Tea took a step forward and screamed, almost plunging through a hole in the floor. Seto quickly caught her, pulling her back up. She let him hold on to her for a moment as she drew her wits about her and then she gently pushed him away. "What is that?!" she burst out.  
  
"There's a good chance it's the hole leading to the celler," Bakura said, kneeling down and peering into it.  
  
Tea gasped. "Can you see anything, Bakura?" she asked.  
  
"Nothing," the silver-haired boy replied.  
  
"We have to go down," Tea insisted. "Joey might have gotten hurt!"  
  
"Lucky for you two, I brought a flashlight," Seto informed them, pulling it out and clicking it on. He shined it into the hole. "It's the cellar alright, but I don't see Wheeler. The ladder's on the floor, though."  
  
"Maybe Joey fell off the ladder," Tea said, her eyes wide.  
  
"If we're going down there, we'll need some kind of ladder or rope," Bakura realized. "It's much too far to jump. We could break a leg or a neck!"  
  
Suddenly a hand clamped down on Tea's shoulder and she screamed. "Someone's here!!" she burst out. 


	10. Vanished Without a Trace

Instantly Seto and Bakura snapped to attention. "Who's there?" Seto demanded. "I've got a gun."  
  
Another hand clamped on Seto's shoulder and a familiar voice started to laugh. "What gun, Kaiba?"  
  
"Joey!!" Tea and Bakura exclaimed, while at the same time Seto growled, "Wheeler!!"  
  
The missing Brooklyn boy grinned, stepping out of the shadows. "Miss me?"  
  
"Joey, how long have you been here?!" Tea demanded.  
  
"Just about a minute," Joey replied. "After I climbed up here, the ladder fell back down. Then I leaned on the wall and fell into some kind of secret room. I just managed to open the panel again now." He grinned mischievously. "Did I scare ya?"  
  
Seto raised an eyebrow. "Of course you didn't scare me, Wheeler. I don't scare easily. But now Tea here might be an altogether different story."  
  
Tea crossed her arms and nodded angrily. Joey had utterly terrified her, placing his hand on her shoulder like he had while hiding in the shadows. "Joey, you shouldn't do things like that!" she scolded.  
  
Joey shrugged. "Hey, where's Yugi and the others?" he demanded suddenly, looking around.  
  
"That's what we would like to know," Bakura said. "We all just suddenly were separated!"  
  
"Well, that's not cool," Joey declared.  
  
"It's certainly not," Tea agreed with a nod. "We have to find them!"  
  
"Where did you last see them?" Joey asked.  
  
"In the drawing room," Bakura told him.  
  
"Then let's head for the drawin' room!" Joey said, punching the air with a fist.  
  
"And don't announce our presence, Wheeler," Seto said dryly. "You never know who might be listening in."  
****  
"Yugi, what are we gonna do?" Mokuba asked worriedly.  
  
"All we can do is stay calm and keep searching, Mokuba," Yugi replied.  
  
"Uh, guys . . . I hate to point this out when you're talking about staying calm, Yugi, but that picture's eyes are following us," Tristan announced.  
  
"I don't see anything," Mokuba said, looking up at the portrait.  
  
"I don't either, Tristan," Yugi remarked. "Perhaps it was just the lighting."  
  
"No guys, I really saw it!" Tristan insisted.  
  
They walked on a little farther. A blood-curdling scream echoed through the hallways.  
  
"That sounded like Tea!" Yugi declared.  
  
"Maybe she's close by!" Tristan said.  
  
They ran towards the sound of the voice. Suddenly a suit of armor came to life and stepped in front of them, blocking their path.  
  
"Hey! What's the big idea?!" Tristan demanded. "We only want to find our friends."  
  
The suit raised the axe it was holding threateningly.  
  
"We mean no harm," Yugi tried, without much success.  
  
"What are we gonna do, Yugi?" Mokuba asked.  
  
The suit was obviously not going to back down. Angrily it raised the axe, preparing to strike Yugi down.  
  
Instantly Yugi retaliated with the power of the Millennium Puzzle and sent the suit flying back against the wall. "Alright," he said, turning to look at Tristan and Mokuba, "let's continue down this hall."  
****  
"Well, here's the drawing room," Bakura announced.  
  
"But no one's here!" Tea sighed.  
  
"Eh, well, they've gotta be around here somewhere," Joey said, slamming his fist into his palm. "Let's try over this way. There's another door over here."  
  
Everyone followed Joey toward the door. Suddenly Bakura, who was bringing up the rear, cried out in pain.  
  
"Bakura, what's wrong?" Tea gasped, as the silver-haired boy slumped forward, falling against her. She half-turned, trying to steady him, and saw a hand clutching a hypodermic needle disappear into the wall and vanish. "That hand . . . someone just stabbed Bakura in the neck with a syringe and then their hand vanished into the wall!!" Tea exclaimed.  
  
Seto rushed to assist Tea while Joey stared at the wall angrily. "You wanna mess with us?! Come out and fight! Come on, don't be a chicken!! Put 'em up!!" Joey clenched his fists and punched the wall. "Ow!" he exclaimed, shaking his hand wildly to relieve the pain.  
  
"Watch it, Wheeler," Seto snapped. "We don't need two injured people here." He was holding Bakura's limp body in his arms while Tea tried to revive him.  
  
"Bakura? Please, speak to me, Bakura," she pleaded. "What if that horrible thing poisoned him?" she worried.  
  
That's when Yami Bakura came out of the Millennium Ring. "You dolt!!" he screamed at Bakura.  
  
"Bakura couldn't help it!" Tea said angrily. Yami Bakura only growled in reply. "Do you know if that was poison?" Tea asked pointedly.  
  
"It's not," Yami Bakura told her. "But it could have been. What a dolt!! He should have been more careful!"  
  
"If it wasn't poison," Joey said, "then what was it?"  
  
"A napping potion," Yami Bakura growled.  
  
"They obviously did it to make us clear out of here," Seto said grimly.  
  
"Yeah," Joey sighed. "With Bakura out for the count, I don't think we have much of a choice. We should get him outta here."  
  
That's when Yugi, Tristan, and Mokuba showed up, falling out of a secret panel and landing in a heap on the floor. Yugi looked up. "What's happened here?" he exclaimed.  
  
"Someone hurt Bakura," Tea told him. "Where have you guys been?!"  
  
"We were about to ask you the same question," Yugi replied wryly. He and the others with him stood up and came over. "But we can exchange stories later. Is Bakura hurt badly?"  
  
"He'll recover," Yami Bakura growled.  
  
"But we should get him out of here," Seto said. "No more investigating tonight. But we should probably report that intruder to the police."  
  
Yugi nodded. "I'll help you carry Bakura out."  
  
"I don't need any help," Seto retorted.  
  
"Still the same old Kaiba," Joey sighed, rolling his eyes.  
****  
Since Bakura was hurt, Seto let him and the others ride back in his limo, which he hadn't planned to do otherwise.  
  
"I wonder how long it takes for this to wear off," Tea mused, gently stroking Bakura's hair. The unconscious boy had been laid across the back seat with his head in Tea's lap. "Maybe we should take him to the hospital," she worried.  
  
"No hospitals," Yami Bakura growled. "I told you, Bakura will be fine. Doctors are such inquisitive mortals," he muttered.  
  
Yugi looked thoughtful. "Don't you find it strange that several times now, something has happened to one of us that wasn't really serious? I mean, why haven't the people behind this just killed us? Wouldn't that be the easy way out?"  
  
"Now that you mention it, Yug, it is kinda weird," Joey agreed. "It's almost like maybe someone has a heart and wants to get us off the case without really hurtin' us!"  
  
"Yeah, but what about those dark wraiths? They definitely want us dead," Tristan pointed out. "And I'm sure whoever's controlling them does too."  
  
"Nothing makes sense," Yugi sighed. "How's Bakura now, Tea?" he wondered.  
  
"About the same," Tea sighed, laying a hand on Bakura's forehead to make sure he didn't have a fever. "No . . . wait! His eyes just fluttered," she announced. "Bakura? Are you okay?" she asked.  
  
Bakura groaned, his soft brown eyes opening. "Oh my . . . what happened?" He looked around. "Oh dear . . . I didn't faint, did I?" he asked, his eyes wide. "That would be so embarrassing . . ."  
  
Yugi smiled. "No, Bakura, you didn't faint. Someone drugged you."  
  
"Once again, someone's tryin' to scare us off the case," Joey replied, "or at least, oust us away from that clapboard jungle."  
  
"That's not good," Bakura exclaimed. "There must be something in there that we're not supposed to see!"  
  
"And we're gonna find out what!" Joey slammed his fist into his palm and seemed to startle Seto. "Hey man, you've been pretty quiet," Joey observed. "What's on your mind?"  
  
"My thoughts are of no concern to you, Wheeler," Seto replied, sounding annoyed and grouchy.  
  
"Whoa, touchy!" Joey declared. "Man, you've got a real burr in your saddle today! Not that you usually don't, 'cause you do." He grinned mischievously.  
  
Seto just raised an eyebrow at him. He wasn't in any mood for Joey's off-kilter (yet admittedly, sometimes truthful) remarks.  
****  
Much later that night, after he'd dropped Yugi and his friends off at the game shop and taken Mokuba back home, Seto snuck out of his mansion, determined to find out what was going on back at that weird house. He wasn't afraid to go alone; he'd prefer it actually, and he'd be careful. Whoever was hanging around would be sorry they'd ever messed with him!  
  
"Uh, Mr. Kaiba, sir, we have a bit of a problem," the chauffeur announced nervously. This was a new chauffeur that Seto had just barely hired a day ago and he wasn't used to the strange things that happened. Not that Seto was. He didn't think he'd ever get used to them.  
  
"What it is now?" Seto asked irritably.  
  
"Well, sir, this is the address of the place where we were earlier, but er . . . Well, sir, see for yourself." The chauffeur gestured out the window.  
  
Seto turned to look. "What in the . . ."  
  
All that was there was an empty field!  
  
"You must have the wrong street," Seto said.  
  
"No, sir, it's definitely the right street, sir," the chauffeur insisted. "See, sir, there's where we parked earlier. That is most definitely where the house was, sir, and now it's gone!"  
  
Seto's eyes narrowed. The chauffeur was right. The place had vanished into thin air. That didn't help his already sour mood any.  
****  
"An empty field?" Yugi gasped the next morning. "Joey, you're kidding!"  
  
"No, Yug, I tell ya, I walked past the place on my way over here, and it was gone!" Joey gestured dramatically.  
  
"Hey, Joey, are you sure you weren't hallucinating or something?" Tristan asked facetiously.  
  
"No, I wasn't hallucinatin'!" Joey retorted angrily. "Maybe what happened last night was some kinda weird case of group hypnosis!"  
  
"Group hypnosis?" Tea said in disbelief. "Oh Joey . . . that's ridiculous!"  
  
"I was really drugged," Bakura said, wide-eyed.  
  
"Yeah, yeah, I know," Joey said impatiently. "But under group hypnosis, we coulda been made to think the circumstances were different than they actually were! Maybe that freaky Madame Fiona did something to us when she went into . . er, pretended to go into that trance!"  
  
"What do you think happened to the house, Yugi?" Tea asked.  
  
"It's hard to say, Tea," Yugi replied slowly. "Maybe on the way back from school, we should all go check it out."  
****  
The school day went by slowly, and Yugi and the others were relieved when the bell finally rang.  
  
"Shall we go have a look at that place now?" Yugi asked.  
  
"Yeah, man, let's go for it," Joey said, punching the air.  
  
"I wonder where Seto Kaiba is," Bakura said curiously, looking around. "I haven't seen him all day."  
  
"That's true, Bakura, I haven't either," Yugi realized.  
  
"Maybe he got tired of hangin' around with us," Joey suggested mischievously as they started walking.  
  
"I don't doubt that he might be scared away by some of your antics," Tristan grinned teasingly, "but somehow I don't think Kaiba would play hookey from school to get away from you."  
  
When they finally arrived on the street where the house was supposed to be, the sky had clouded over.  
  
"Looks like we're going to be in for a storm," Tea declared. "If it starts raining, I can't help wishing that the house would still be there."  
  
"If it starts pouring, we could always drop by Madame Fiona's and have our fortunes told," Tristan said, and everyone could tell he was joking. "She can tell us how we're all going to die or how the world's gonna end."  
  
"Hey, look!" Bakura gasped. "There's where the house should be, and it's not there!"  
  
"Hey, I told you, man," Joey said as they surveyed the wide field, which looked as though it hadn't been tended to in decades. The Brooklyn-born boy started walking through the tall brown weeds determinedly. "Let's see if we can get to the bottom of this!" he declared.  
  
"Be careful, Joey," Yugi warned as he, Tea, Tristan, and Bakura followed Joey through the field. "We don't know what we might be getting into here."  
  
"Eh, what danger could there possibly be in an old field like this?" Joey replied airily. "There's nothin' here, not even that darn house!"  
  
Yugi gasped suddenly.  
  
"What is it, Yugi?" Everyone turned to look at the violet-eyed boy, who had disappeared into some wild sunflowers that were taller than he was.  
  
"I wouldn't exactly say there's nothing here," Yugi replied grimly from several yards ahead.  
  
"Well, hey, wait up, man!" Joey said as he and the others wandered into the sunflower patch after their friend.  
  
"Yugi, what did you . . ." Tea stopped short and gasped in horror, and Joey, Tristan, and Bakura quickly followed suit. Yugi was kneeling in a bed of milkweed next to an eerily still body, seeming to be checking for a pulse.  
  
Joey gulped. "Oh man, Yugi, who's . . ."  
  
Yugi looked up. "It's Kaiba," he replied softly. 


	11. Clue from a Vampyre

NOTE: Just another friendly reminder that this isn't yaoi ^_~  
  
  
"Kaiba!" Tea gasped.  
  
"What in the heck is he doin' here?!" Joey demanded. He paused. "Or would that be what *was* he doin' here?" he asked slowly.  
  
"Joey, don't say such things!" Tea scolded, cuffing him on the arm.  
  
Yugi looked concerned as he turned Seto to face him. The other boy's long bangs fell away from his forehead, revealing a nasty red bruise. "Someone hurt him!" Yugi exclaimed.  
  
"How long has he been laying here like this?" Tea wondered, her eyes revealing her worry.  
  
"A good question, Tea," Yugi said grimly, summoning his Yami. He rubbed at Seto's wrists, trying desperately to get some kind of response. "My guess is that he wound up on the wrong end of a brutal attack."  
  
"He *is* alive, isn't he?" Joey ventured.  
  
Yugi was about to reply when Seto flinched abruptly, pulling away from him. "He's alive," Yugi announced. "In his confused state, he must've thought I was his attacker returning to hurt him again." He paused. "It's alright, Kaiba," he said quietly. "I'm here to help you."  
  
Seto relaxed, a soft moan escaping from his lips.  
  
"Quickly help me move him out of these weeds and into a clearing," Yugi instructed, after using the Millennium Puzzle to scan Seto for internal injuries and finding none. "He might be able to breathe easier that way."  
  
Both Joey and Tristan came to help. They each took hold of one of Seto's limp arms and pulled him up, dragging him between the two of them back into the field, where they gently laid him on a patch of grass.  
  
"Shouldn't I call an ambulance?" Tea asked nervously.  
  
Yugi looked around. "Where would you tell them to send it, Tea?" He replied with a question of his own.  
  
Tea took a look around and gasped. They were surrounded on all sides by the field, with no civilization in sight. A foggy mist started to close in on them. "Yugi, what happened?" she burst out. "Where did everything go?!"  
  
"I'm afraid it's some kind of black magic," Yugi replied. "We've teleported."  
  
"Oh man, and to parts unknown, too," Joey groaned.  
  
"Actually, I think we're on the English moors," Yugi announced, inspecting the gathering fog.  
  
"Oh boy, and any minute we'll see the ghosts of Heathcliff and Catherine," Joey remarked sarcastically, and Bakura had to laugh.  
  
Yugi knelt down in the grass next to Seto, who had fallen silent and still again. "Kaiba? Can you hear me?" he asked, hoping that the other boy hadn't lapsed back into complete unconsciousness once more.   
  
To Yugi's and the others' relief, Seto groaned and blinked. He was getting very tired of being knocked around on this case, and even more tired of being fussed over by Yugi and his friends. "I'm alright," he said weakly. "Don't crowd around me like this . . . I'm fine."  
  
The others backed away. "Eh, yeah, you look fine," Joey replied doubtfully. "What kinda trouncin' did you take, man?"  
  
Seto sat up and shook his head, frustrated. "I came out here to see if the house was back and something attacked me that I couldn't even see. I fought with it for a while, but it got the upper hand. I must've passed out when it hit me in the head." He rubbed at the bruise angrily.  
  
Joey raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, I would say you must've, alright. We didn't see you at school."  
  
"How long have you been here, Kaiba?" Yugi asked.  
  
Seto's eyes narrowed in vexation. "I don't know." He stood up weakly, dusting himself off. "What the . . . what's this?" He held up a piece of black cloth. "I must have pulled this off of my attacker's clothing."  
  
"You were attacked by a dark wraith?" Tea gasped.  
  
Seto shrugged in reply. "This whole case is ridiculous." He looked around. "Where did this fog come from?!" he demanded.  
  
"We've teleported, man," Joey told him. He took a step forward and gasped. "And oh man, I think we just did it again!" Now the entire field seemed to be located in the middle of the snow-covered Sierra mountains.  
  
"This is not good," Yugi said grimly.  
  
"You mean we might be teleporting forever?" Bakura, who had been quiet for quite a while, exclaimed.  
  
Yugi nodded. "However, I might be able to send us all back with the Millennium Puzzle," he announced.  
  
"Alright, man," Joey grinned. "Go for it!"  
  
"Everyone stay close together," Yugi ordered. "We don't want to get separated."  
  
"Oh boy, you got that right, Yug," Joey said as they all formed a circle around Yugi and the Millennium Puzzle started to glow. "I don't wanna be left behind with all the moor ghosts."   
  
Before they quite knew what had happened, the six teens and the field were back in the neighborhood where they'd been originally.  
  
"We're home!" Tea exclaimed in relief.  
  
"Oh man, I never thought I'd be so grateful to see the street where that freaky Madame Fiona lives!" Joey declared, throwing his arms up in the air.  
  
"And it's raining cats and dogs!" Tristan yelped as a torrent swept over them.  
  
"You know, Tristan, I know you were just kidding earlier about visiting Madame Fiona if it started raining, but maybe it's not such a bad idea," Yugi mused, shielding himself from the downpour.  
  
Tristan sighed. "I guess there's nothing else we can do, unless we all wanna catch pneumonia."  
  
Everyone made a mad dash across the field and over to Madame Fiona's spooky house. Yugi used the bat knocker again and soon the door was opened by the mysterious psychic (vampyre?), who smiled when she saw who was at her door. "Ah, you are back, I see," she said. "I foresaw your arrival."  
  
"We were looking for shelter from the storm," Yugi explained. "Would it be alright if we . . ."  
  
"If you waited in my humble home for it to end? Of course. Come right in," she purred, holding the door open wide.  
  
"Tell me, Madame Fiona," Joey said curiously, "did you also foresee what would happen to us before we wound up on your doorstep?"  
  
"You mean about the teleporting and Seto Kaiba being injured?" Madame Fiona returned. "Of course, Joseph."  
  
Joey gulped, finding himself starting to seriously freak out. "Eh, about that prophecy you made last night, Madame Fiona. . . . Is it . . ."  
  
"Is it still going to be fulfilled?" Madame Fiona finished. "Yes, Joseph, I am afraid so. You and Seto Kaiba will both perish by Halloween."  
  
"But I don't wanna die!!" Joey screamed.  
  
"I truly regret it, Joseph, but there is nothing I can do," Madame Fiona replied softly. "That is what I saw, and it will happen no matter what any of us do." She turned to leave. "I was just about to fix myself a snack. Would you all like one today?"  
  
Yugi smiled. "No, thank you. We're fine."  
  
Madame Fiona nodded and disappeared into the kitchen. The lights flickered, presumably from the storm.  
  
Joey sank into the couch cushions. "Oh man . . ."  
  
"I thought you didn't believe all that psychic nonsense, Joey," Tristan said teasingly.  
  
Joey looked frustrated. "I don't!" He sighed. "But still . . . it is kinda disconcertin', the way she's been managin' to predict all these things happening like that."  
  
"So it's dumb luck, Joey," Tristan shrugged.  
  
"Or maybe it's more than that," Bakura spoke up. "She could be involved with everything that's been happening, as you said, Yugi."  
  
Yugi nodded. "That's true, she could be. Of course . . ." Here he paused, looking as though he somewhat dreaded what he was about to say. "There really are a select few people who can see into the future for real, such as Malik's sister Isis."  
  
Joey groaned. "Come on, Yug, I thought you were on my side."  
  
Yugi laid a hand on his friend's shoulder. "I am, Joey," he assured him. "My point is, just in case Madame Fiona is one of those select few, I think that you and Kaiba should both be very careful for the next few days."  
  
"Wise advice, Yugi Muto," Madame Fiona smiled, coming out of the kitchen with a glass of that same mysterious red liquid. "You should all be very careful."  
  
She walked past a hanging wall mirror and Joey gasped. He hadn't seen a reflection! Oh man, oh man, oh man, we're havin' lunch with a vampyre!! he screamed in his mind. From the look on Yugi's face, he'd noticed the odd phenomena as well.  
  
"Would you excuse me for a moment?" Seto spoke up. "I should call back home and make certain my brother is safe."  
  
"Of course," Madame Fiona smiled. "Go right ahead."  
  
Seto walked to the other side of the room, passing by the mirror. Surely the mirror was just broken, he thought. After all, there weren't really any such creatures as . . .  
  
He started when he noticed his reflection. The mirror wasn't broke. "What the . . ." he muttered low.  
  
While Seto made his phone call, Madame Fiona announced that she was seeing something that might help Yugi and the others on their investigation.  
  
"What do you see, Madame Fiona?" Yugi asked.  
  
The psychic paused. "I see . . . much fire and smoke . . . and someone is fleeing the scene . . ."  
  
"An arsonist?" Yugi said.  
  
"Your villain," Madame Fiona replied. "He or she is skilled in pyrotechnics."  
  
"Can you see what they look like?" Tea wondered.  
  
Madame Fiona shook her head. "Their face is hidden from me and their silhouette is very blurred."  
  
"So this person knows how to light a fire," Joey remarked. "How's that gonna help us?"  
  
Yugi paused, thinking. "We should pay another visit to Mr. Graves at the funeral home," he announced.  
  
Joey cringed at the thought of going back there again. "Oh man . . ."  
  
Seto hung the phone up and came back over to them.  
  
"Is Mokuba alright?" Tea asked.  
  
"He's fine," Seto replied. "I sent for the limo to take us back to town. It should arrive shortly."  
  
Joey gave Seto a sidelong glance. "Did you tell Mokuba what happened?" he asked.  
  
"You mean about . . .?" Seto pointed to himself and shook his head. "No. I didn't want to worry him." He didn't mention that he probably would need to tell his brother so that he could be on guard in case he was attacked the same way.  
  
The lights flickered again.  
  
"That's some storm," Tristan remarked.  
  
"It is not the storm," Madame Fiona replied eerily.  
  
The lights rapidly blinked on and off.  
  
"There is another presence in the room!" Madame Fiona cried. 


	12. Scarecrow Bandits

NOTE: As I mentioned before, I'm honestly not trying to get Seto and Tea in a romantic thing together ;D  
  
  
"Another presence?" Yugi repeated. The couch they were sitting on rose into the air. Tea, Joey, and Bakura screamed. Yugi, Seto, and Tristan just looked astounded.  
  
"Take us down! Take us down!" Joey yelled.  
  
Madame Fiona placed her hands over her temples and started to chant. Then she hummed low and called in a commanding tone, "Spirit, release them and deliver your message!"  
  
"This *is* my message," an eerie voice intoned. "You will all suffer painful deaths for your interference!" With that the couch was slammed back down and everyone spilled onto the floor. Yugi got to his feet and, raising his right hand, banished the evil presence.  
  
"Oh man, what was that?!" Joey exclaimed.  
  
"An evil spirit," Yugi said grimly.  
  
"I'm not being scared off the case," Seto growled.  
  
"Me either!" Joey said hotly.  
  
"You are brave," Madame Fiona purred. "Not everyone has the courage to stand up to demons." She stroked Joey's messy blonde hair and he backed away nervously. "Ah, surely you are not afraid of me," Madame Fiona smiled.  
  
Joey gulped. "Eh, well . . ."  
  
"I will not harm you, Joseph," she assured him. "I will not harm any of you."  
  
Seto glanced out the window. "The limo's here," he announced.  
  
Yugi nodded. "We'll be taking our leave now," he said, smiling at Madame Fiona. "Thank you for your kindness in letting us stay here."  
  
"Of course. Come back again soon," Madame Fiona replied, watching them go out the door and get into the limo.  
****  
"So, Yug, what's the plan now?" Joey asked as they rode downtown.  
  
"We should visit the funeral home," Yugi told him. "It dawned on me that at least some of the people there must know something about pyrotechnics."  
  
Joey nodded slowly. "Oh. Yeah, I see what you mean, Yug," he said.  
  
"Head for the funeral home," Seto directed his chauffeur.  
  
"Yes, Mr. Kaiba," the chauffeur replied with a nod.  
****  
When they arrived at the funeral home, the last thing they expected to see was five scarecrows running out the door, each one holding something that looked like file folders. Mr. Graves was chasing after them, screaming angrily.  
  
"What happened here, Mr. Graves?" Yugi asked as they ran over.  
  
"I've been robbed by an entire group of straw men!" Mr. Graves yelled. "They took the files for some of the most unusual . . . customers," he finished finally.  
  
"Don't worry, we'll do our best to find them," Yugi assured him. "Meantime, call the police!"  
  
With that, the six teens took off after the fleeing scarecrows, which all decided to run in different directions. This caused the teens to split up as well.  
  
"Be careful!" Yugi called. "It's almost dark and anything could be lurking in the shadows!"  
  
How pleasant, Tea thought as she found herself running alongside Seto Kaiba.  
  
"I don't see any scarecrows!" she yelled.  
  
"I saw one," Seto replied grimly. "It went down in that alley."  
  
In the ensuing darkness, Tea suddenly found herself alone in the alley. She looked around, feeling worried and uneasy. "Kaiba?" she called, her gaze darting back and forth. "I thought you were coming in here! Where are you?"  
  
A horrible laugh that didn't sound anything like Seto was her only answer, and a scruffy man stepped out of the shadows, leering at her. "Hey, girly, you shouldn't be wandering around the streets all by yourself," he sneered, advancing on her.  
  
Tea backed up, her blue eyes wide with fright. "I'm not alone," she said steadily.  
  
He smirked. "Not anymore, you're not. Now how about coming with me for a little moonlight stroll?"  
  
"Not on your life, buster!" Tea snapped.  
  
He reached for her arm. "I said come with me!" he growled.  
  
"Stay away from me!!" Tea tried to hit the evil man, but he grabbed her wrists tightly.   
  
"You're comin' with me, girly," he leered.  
  
"I won't!" Tea screamed, kicking wildly.  
  
"Let her go. Now!"  
  
Tea looked up. Seto Kaiba had appeared out of seemingly nowhere, and he glared threateningly at the man, who only laughed and didn't release Tea from his grasp.  
  
"Seto Kaiba, eh?" he mused. "Is she your girlfriend?" He jerked Tea forward.  
  
"No, she's not my girlfriend," Seto replied coldly. "But I'm not about to let you do anything to her. Now let her go."  
  
"Oh, you're just a kid," the man snarled. "I'm not afraid of you !" He took a step backward, still holding on to Tea, whose eyes were wide and frightened. "What could you possibly do to me?"  
  
Seto responded by first squeezing a pressure point on the man's arm, and he screamed in pain, releasing his grip on Tea, who quickly darted out of the way to watch from a safe distance. Then Seto grabbed the man's wrist and flipped him over. The man groaned in agony and struggled to his feet, attempting another attack. Seto swiftly lashed out with a karate kick, sending him flying against the brick wall. "Had enough yet?" Seto asked, glaring at the man, who was gasping for breath.  
  
"Just wait . . . Seto Kaiba . . . I will have my revenge," he rasped.  
  
Seto shrugged in a "Yeah, whatever" kind of way and turned back to Tea, who had watched all this wide-eyed. "Are you alright, Tea?" he asked.  
  
She nodded shakily. "I'm okay . . . thanks to you," she whispered softly.  
  
Seto didn't answer. Instead he put his arm around Tea gently and led her out of the alley, back the way they'd come. "That scarecrow will just have to be allowed to get away," he muttered. He didn't mention that he was planning to come back later and look for it.  
****  
When they got back to the funeral home, they found that the others were already there.  
  
"Whoa! Where have you two been?" Joey burst out when he saw them approach.  
  
"We were starting to get very worried," Yugi added.  
  
"I ran into a real jerk in an alley," Tea told them, "and Kaiba showed him a thing or two!"  
  
All eyes turned to Seto, who simply shrugged and replied, "Tea can tell you about it later. Were any of the scarecrows found?"  
  
"Not a one," Joey sighed. "They ran off with all of the 'unusual customers' files."  
  
"What exactly did you mean by 'unusual customers'?" Seto asked Mr. Graves.  
  
Now Mr. Graves sighed. "Well, I know how ridiculous this is going to sound, but several people brought to my funeral home lately have had strange marks on their necks."  
  
"What kind of strange marks, Mr. Graves?" Yugi queried.  
  
"Well, frankly . . ." Mr. Graves paused. "They looked like fang marks."  
  
"You mean like from a snake?" Tristan asked.  
  
"Not exactly," Mr. Graves replied, "and that's part of what's so puzzling. They don't look like any kind of marks we've ever seen before."  
  
"You say that's only part of what's puzzling, Mr. Graves?" Bakura asked.  
  
Mr. Graves nodded. "That's right. The other very odd thing about those particular bodies is that they've been drained of most of their blood."  
  
Everyone gasped, and Bakura suddenly looked lightheaded. Tea had to catch him before he fainted.  
  
"Oh man, you're kidding, right?" Joey exclaimed.  
  
Mr. Graves shook his head. "None of us here at the funeral home can understand it. It just doesn't make sense."  
  
"So is that what killed 'em, then?" Joey wanted to know. "Or did the blood drinkers come after they were dead?"  
  
Mr. Graves sighed. "The pathologist couldn't find out what killed any of them. She had to call the causes of death 'mysterious circumstances.'"  
  
"Ohh man, is anyone else thinkin' what I'm thinkin'?" Joey exclaimed, looking at each of the others in turn.  
  
"You're thinking that this is the work of vampyres and that Madame Fiona is to blame," Tristan deduced.  
  
"What else?" Joey threw his hands up in the air. "I think that we should search her place when she's not there and see what kinda stuff we find!"  
  
Tristan rolled his eyes. "Joey, we could get arrested!"  
  
"Better alive in jail than dead on the floor!" Joey returned. "I don't wanna be her next victim!"  
  
"You're over-reacting, Wheeler," Seto said dryly.  
  
"Excuse me for entering this conversation, but WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT??!!" Mr. Graves screamed.  
  
"Oh, nothing, Mr. Graves," Tristan replied. "Joey here just thinks that psychic lady who foresaw the scarecrow attack is a bloodthirsty vampyre."  
  
"Scarecrows, wraiths, vampyres . . . What next??" Mr. Graves moaned. "Zombies??!"  
  
"Actually, we've already dealt with those," Tristan grinned.  
  
Mr. Graves moaned again and ran his hands through his hair, completely messing it up.  
  
"Don't worry, Mr. Graves," Yugi said determinedly, "we're going to get to the bottom of this!" He paused. "Mr. Graves, does Bob Fielding know anything about pyrotechnics?" he asked.  
  
Mr. Graves looked surprised. "Well, yes, he does," he admitted. "But what does that have to do with anything?!"  
  
"It might help with the investigation," Yugi replied mysteriously.  
  
"Well, whatever," Mr. Graves said irritably. "Now I will bid you all good night." With that he went back into his office and slammed the door.  
  
"Friendly guy," Joey remarked sarcastically.  
  
"Well, I think he has many good reasons to be upset," Yugi said grimly. "This is one twist I wasn't expecting."  
  
"It's that creepy Madame Fiona, I know it is," Joey declared.  
  
"Oh Joey," Tea sighed.  
****  
After Seto dropped the others off at the game shop, he instructed the chauffeur to take him back to the alley. He knew the scarecrow wasn't likely to be around, but he was hoping to find some kind of clue.  
  
"Mr. Kaiba, sir, are you certain you want to get out here?" the chauffeur asked doubtfully, looking around at the broken-down buildings and dark streets. "It doesn't look very safe."  
  
"I'll be careful," Seto replied, opening the door and stepping out. He entered the alley from the other side and looked around. No one was in sight, but was that some wisps of straw clinging to a building's fire escape? Quickly Seto pulled them free and put them in an envelope he'd brought with him. Perhaps the straw could be tested to determine where it had come from. That could be a valuable clue.  
  
"Hey, you there! Young man!"  
  
Seto looked up. A woman with her hair in curlers was leaning out of the window, looking at him curiously. "Yes? What is it, ma'am?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.  
  
"I saw you down there earlier," the woman called back. "I was just wondering if you were looking for something."  
  
"I might be," Seto replied, crossing his arms. "Do you know about something that I might want to know about? Did you see anything that looked suspicious?"  
  
"Well, yes, I did, actually," the woman nodded. "About thirty minutes before I saw you the first time, I saw what looked like one of those horrible straw men running by carrying file folders. Then it climbed up that fire escape there and went in the building through the door on the roof."  
  
Seto looked thoughtful. "What is this building here?"  
  
"Oh, it used to be a store with an apartment over it," the woman replied, "but it's been abandoned now for about fifteen years."  
  
"Did you ever see the scarecrow come out?" Seto asked.  
  
The woman shook her head. "It might still be holed up in there."  
  
"The police are looking for those scarecrows, you know," Seto told her. "They committed a robbery."  
  
The woman sighed. "Well, I hope they catch them. I want to get those horrible things off the streets and back into the cornfields where they belong!"  
  
Seto nodded. "We all do. Thank you for your help, ma'am," he said, turning to climb up the fire escape.  
  
"You be careful now," the woman cautioned.  
  
"I will be," Seto assured her.  
  
When he reached the roof, he noticed that the door was blowing in the autumn breeze. Either the scarecrow had done that, or someone else had come up here.  
  
Before Seto could plan his best course of action, he felt cold metal pressing against his neck. "Move and I'll slit your throat," an evil-sounded voice hissed. 


	13. The Cobra Colony

Seto froze. He knew he'd have to think of a way out of this, but first he wanted some idea of what he was up against. "What do you want with me?" he demanded.  
  
"I don't like snoops," the man replied. "Especially know-it-all brats like you, Seto Kaiba!"  
  
Now Seto knew who his assailant was—the snake who had tried to attack Tea! They had told the police about him earlier, but he had managed to get away.  
  
Seto already had a plan in mind to get the upper hand. Without the man realizing it, Seto kicked an old baseball across the roof, where it clanged into an old bucket.  
  
The man started, drawing the knife away from Seto's throat. "What was that?!"  
  
Before the creep knew what had happened, Seto had taken his knife arm and wrenched it further away, and then flipped him over onto the roof. The knife flew out of his hand, landing harmlessly in a nearby crate. Before the man could attempt to get up, Seto placed a foot firmly on his back. "You're not getting away this time," the boy growled, pulling out his cell phone and calling the police.  
****  
Yugi hung up the phone, his violet eyes wide.  
  
"What is it, Yug? More bad news?" Joey sighed.  
  
Yugi shook his head. "No, good news, actually," he replied. "That was the police. They said that Kaiba caught that guy who went after you, Tea," he announced, turning to the girl, who was standing in the doorway.  
  
Tea blinked in surprise. "Really? But . . . how did Kaiba meet up with him again?"  
  
Yugi shrugged. "The police officer I spoke to didn't know. Apparently Kaiba didn't tell him much, only that the guy threatened him with a knife."  
  
"Well, I'm glad he managed to catch that creep," Tea declared with a shudder.  
  
"Hey, I bet I know what Kaiba did," Joey grinned mischievously. "He probably went back to that alley lookin' for that scarecrow all by himself."  
  
"That sounds like Kaiba, alright," Yugi admitted.  
  
"Man, how does that guy stay among the living?" Joey wondered, shaking his head. "He has more lives than a cat!"   
  
Tristan snickered.  
  
The phone rang again. Yugi picked it up. "Hello, Muto residence."  
  
"Yugi, the conniving snake I caught is mixed up in the mystery," Seto announced without bothering to say hello.  
  
"Kaiba!" Yugi exclaimed. "Are you alright?"  
  
"I'm fine." Seto sounded a bit annoyed. "You might want to come down here and hear what he has to say." He hung up.  
  
"Short conversation," Joey remarked.  
  
"That was Kaiba," Yugi told him. "He says to come down to the police station!"  
****  
When they arrived at the precinct, an officer offered to lead them to the man's cell. "We've been trying to catch this mug for months," he told him as they walked down the hall. "He's notorious for hiding in alleys and robbing people."  
  
Tea shuddered.  
  
"Seto Kaiba said something about him being mixed up in a mystery we're trying to solve," Yugi spoke up.  
  
The officer squinted at him. "Oh, so you're that group of kids I heard about! You've been looking into that crazy scarecrow invasion, right?"  
  
Yugi nodded. "That's right, officer."  
  
"Well, I don't know if this guy has anything to do with that, but he did say something weird about zombies being turned loose," the officer stated. He shrugged. "Another stupid Halloween prank, I guess."  
  
The five teens all exchanged Looks.  
  
The officer stopped in front of a cell near the end of the hall. "Here we are," he announced.  
  
Seto Kaiba was sitting in a chair next to the cell, apparently in the middle of interrogating the criminal. He looked up. "Fifteen minutes," he commented, checking his watch. "Not bad."  
  
"Alright, man, whaddya know about the zombies??" Joey demanded, grabbing the jail bars and glaring at the man in the cell. "They almost made me kill my best buddy with their stupid spell!"  
  
The man glared right back. He had dark hair and cold green eyes, a goatee, and a long scar across his right cheek. "So you're the one who broke free of the spell?" he sneered. "You're the only one who ever has, you know. Well, you and that kid." He shrugged. "Sure, I'll talk. That way I'll get a lighter sentence and be out of here faster. The zombies were set loose by the ringleader of a cult devoted to ruling the world," he explained.  
  
"What kinda cult? Who're the other members? And where do they meet?" Joey wanted to know.  
  
The man didn't look fazed by Joey's rapid-fire questioning. "They're called the Cobra Colony. I don't know who the other members are or where they meet. I wasn't a member, just a guy hired to get rid of anybody snooping around. I only communicated with them through a member who would visit me at my place, and he always wore dark robes, so I couldn't see what he looked like." He looked past Joey, spotted Tea, and leered at her. She glared at him and stepped closer to Yugi.  
  
"So you don't know anything about the members at all, except that they wear dark robes?" Yugi asked.  
  
The man nodded. "That's right."  
  
"Well, this is a fine kettle of fish," Joey muttered a little while later as they left the police station.  
  
"At least we have a new clue," Yugi replied.  
  
"The Cobra Colony," Bakura mused. "I don't believe I've ever heard of such a thing."  
  
"The police haven't either," Tea sighed. "There was nothing about them in their records."  
  
"I wonder how we'll go about finding them?" Bakura remarked.  
  
"That's a good question, Bakura," Yugi said thoughtfully. "And right now I don't have any good answers."  
  
Joey stifled a yawn. "Maybe we should all go home and sleep on it," he suggested.  
  
"Sounds good to me," Tea agreed. "It must be almost midnight by now!"  
  
"Actually, it's nearly 1am," Seto grumbled.  
****  
The next day, Yugi and the others still didn't know how to go about finding the Cobra Colony.  
  
"Who in the world would know where to find a secret, creepy cult?" Joey sighed.  
  
"Bob Fielding, perhaps?"  
  
Everyone turned to look at Seto Kaiba, who had just appeared and was standing next to Bakura's desk, his briefcase in hand.  
  
"Seto Kaiba! Have you been hacking into his computer again?!" Tea scolded.  
  
"Right now, Tea, I don't care if he was—if it helps solve this freaky mystery," Joey sighed.  
  
"What did you find, Kaiba?" Yugi asked.  
  
Seto smirked. "I haven't been hacking into his computer again, for your information. I remembered something unusual I saw when I did hack into it—his desktop wallpaper is the silhouette of a cobra."  
  
Everyone gasped.  
  
"In that case, we'll havta go snoop around his office, and maybe his house, too!" Joey declared. "Man, I knew there was somethin' weird about that guy from the moment we first met him!"  
  
"It could just be a coincidence," Tristan shrugged.  
  
Yugi nodded. "You're right, Tristan, but in such a serious case as this, we have to follow up every possible lead." He opened his desk and gasped. "What's this?" He held up an envelope with his name written on it in newspaper letters.  
  
"Newspaper letters? Oh man, that can't be good," Joey groaned.  
  
Yugi nodded grimly, lifting the flap. A single sheet of paper fell out. Joey picked it up and read it aloud, "'Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall—but not as great as yours will be!' . . . What is this??!" he demanded.  
  
"Obviously a death threat, Wheeler," Seto replied.  
  
"I know that, wiseguy," Joey snapped. "But who the heck would come barging right into the school like this and put this thing in Yugi's desk??!"  
  
"Yugi, I don't like this," Tea declared. "Maybe you should give the case up and let the police handle it."  
  
Yugi shook his head firmly. "No, Tea, I'm not going to be scared off the case! We've come this far and we're going to solve it!"  
  
Tea sighed in defeat. "I knew it would probably be impossible to convince you, Yugi, but I'm just so worried that something will happen that . . . that you, or Joey, or Tristan or Bakura, or even Kaiba . . . won't recover from." She brushed aside a tear. "And I don't want to loose you . . . any of you," she whispered, looking at each of the five boys around her.  
  
Yugi smiled comfortingly. "Don't worry, Tea. We'll all get out of this alive."  
****  
"Oh man, here we are again," Joey moaned as they arrived at the funeral home after school. "Let's hope we get some good clues this time."  
  
"If nothing else, hopefully we'll find out where Bob lives," Yugi replied, summoning his Yami. "He's unlisted in the phone book." He opened the door and they all went in.  
  
This time there was a pretty young receptionist at the desk. "Hello," she chirped. "And how may I help you today?"  
  
"Is Mr. Graves here?" Yugi asked.  
  
"He should be in his office," the receptionist replied with a smile. "Who shall I say is calling?"  
  
"Yugi Muto and friends," Yugi told her.  
  
Within a few minutes, Mr. Graves came out to talk to them. He looked frazzled and upset. "Well, what information do you have for me today?" he demanded.  
  
"Mr. Graves, have you ever heard of something called the Cobra Colony?" Yugi asked.  
  
"Cobra Colony? What nonsense is that?" Mr. Graves cried.  
  
"It's important, Mr. Graves," Tea insisted. "Please, can you think of any time you might have heard about them?"  
  
Mr. Graves paused, thinking. "Now I think of it, it seems that I saw something about cobras on Bob's desk just a few minutes ago," he said. "He's gone home for the day, so why don't you all come with me and I'll see if I can find it."  
  
"That would be great, Mr. Graves," Yugi smiled.  
  
Soon they were at Bob's desk and Joey, Tristan, and Seto immediately went to look for anything about cobras. "He must've taken it home with him," Seto muttered.  
  
"Wait . . . what's this?" Yugi held up a piece of paper, on which Bob had lightly scribbled, "F calling CC meeting, 12am, Halloween night."  
  
"Oh man!" Joey moaned. "He must mean Fiona! She's the leader!"  
  
"Now let's not jump to conclusions, Joey," Yugi scolded gently. "We don't want to get an innocent person in trouble."  
  
"Yeah, well, I also don't wanna let a cult leader bent on rulin' the world run free!" Joey retorted.  
  
"Would someone kindly explain what's going on here?!" Mr. Graves yelled.  
  
"It looks very possible that Bob is mixed up in a secret cult that's responsible for turning the zombies loose in the city," Yugi said grimly.  
  
"What??! Good heavens!! Why me?" Mr. Graves moaned.  
  
"Of course we can't know for sure," Yugi hastened to add. "Mr. Graves, do you know where Bob lives?"  
  
Mr. Graves sighed. "He lives at a boarding house. Come with me and I'll get you the address." He paused, giving the boy a suspicious look. "Just what are you planning to do when you get there?"  
  
Yugi sighed. "Good question."  
****  
Within the hour, the six teens had arrived at the boarding house.  
  
"Eh, guys, am I the only one who finds this place kinda . . . freaky?" Joey gawked at the crumbling old mansion, which looked as though it could be the disappearing one in the field's twin.  
  
"No, Joey, you're not," Yugi said grimly.  
  
"Do we dare knock on the door?" Bakura said softly.  
  
"We'll have to," Yugi replied.  
  
They walked up an eerie path with tombstones on either side and up on the porch, where several coffins had been set up.  
  
"Oh man, I'm gettin' the willies . . .!" Joey gulped, shuddering.  
  
Before Yugi could knock, the door was abruptly flung open by what looked like a screaming ghoul with blood streaming down its face. Everyone freaked out, except for Seto, who just looked repulsed. "Stop with your childish pranks," he ordered.  
  
With a sigh, the creature pulled the realistic mask off, revealing an ordinary twelve-year-old boy with red hair and freckles, reminding Tea of Tom Sawyer. He flashed a toothy grin. "Did I scare ya?"  
  
"Scare me? Of course not!" Joey bluffed, crossing his arms and looking defiant.  
  
"Oh come on, Joey," Tristan returned, raising an eyebrow. "You were screaming louder than any of us."  
  
Yugi chuckled and turned to the young boy. "I'm Yugi Muto and these are my friends," he said, and everyone else introduced themselves as well.  
  
"I'm Billy," the kid replied. "My grandma runs the place. Can I help you with anything?"  
  
Yugi smiled. "Perhaps you can, Billy. Does a Bob Fielding live here?" he asked.  
  
The boy's eyes went wide. "You're the second ones to come here lookin' for him," he declared.  
  
"Who else came, Billy?" Yugi wanted to know.  
  
"I don't know," Billy shrugged. "Just a couple of weird people. I told them about Mr. Fielding and then they went away."  
  
"And what did you tell them about Mr. Fielding?" Yugi asked.  
  
"That he up and cleared out!" Billy replied. 


	14. Eerie Town

"Cleared out?" Yugi repeated.  
  
Billy nodded. "That's right. He said he had to go somewhere and then he just packed up and left."  
  
"Well, that's just great," Joey sighed.  
  
"Did he give any indication where he was going?" Yugi asked.  
  
"Nope," Billy replied. "Grandma Turner tried to ask him for a forwarding address to send his mail to, but he just said to send them to his post office box in town."  
  
"Does that mean that he still might be in the city?" Tea wondered.  
  
"Possibly," Yugi replied. "But on the other hand, it could also mean that he didn't think he'd be getting anything important until he got back. Tell me, Billy, did he pack up everything?"  
  
"Everything," Billy nodded. "Clothes, pictures, magazines, and his secret files."  
  
"Eh, secret files?" Joey repeated.  
  
"What kind of secret files, Billy?" Yugi wanted to know.  
  
Billy shrugged. "I don't know. I always wanted to get a look at 'em, but I never could. He was always one step ahead of me and always managed to pop in on me just when I was about to peek!"  
  
"Could we have a look at his room?" Yugi asked.  
  
"Sure," Billy said, leading them inside. "Hey, are you guys detectives?" he demanded.  
  
Yugi smiled. "In a way," he replied.  
  
"Cool! Can I help you solve your case?" Billy asked eagerly as he led them upstairs.  
  
"You certainly can," Yugi agreed. "Tell us more about Mr. Fielding," he requested.  
  
"What is he like?" Tea wanted to know.  
  
"Really mysterious and pretty grouchy," Billy replied. "Grandma doesn't like him very much, but I think he's cool!"  
  
"Mysterious and grouchy . . . that sounds like him, alright," Joey grinned.  
  
Billy opened a door at the end of the hall. "Here's the room," he announced. "What do you guys expect to find in here?"  
  
"Anything the guy might've forgot to take with him," Joey replied. He looked around at the room, which was stripped almost bare. "Whoa, Billy, you weren't kidding when you said he packed everything," he remarked.  
  
"Yeah," Tristan agreed. "I don't think we're going to find anything in here, Yugi."  
  
"Probably not, but we should still look," Yugi replied, opening a drawer.  
  
After nearly thirty minutes of fruitless searching, they were about ready to give up.  
  
"Is your grandmother here, Billy?" Yugi asked as he shut the closet.  
  
Billy nodded. "Yeah, she's downstairs making dinner. Why?"  
  
"We would like to talk to her about Mr. Fielding," Yugi told him.  
  
"Okay," Billy shrugged. "C'mon."  
****  
"Bob Fielding?" The bespectacled woman looked up from the stew she was stirring. "He was most unpleasant. I can't say that I'm sad he left."  
  
"Did he ever have any visitors?" Seto asked.  
  
The woman paused. "There was one, a foreign girl. She and Mr. Fielding would go up on the balcony to talk."  
  
"By any chance would she have had long, black hair and red fingernails?" Joey gulped.  
  
"Why, yes," Mrs. Turner said in surprise. "How did you know?"  
  
"Lucky guess," Joey said lamely.  
  
"Did you know her name?" Seto wanted to know.  
  
Mrs. Turner sighed. "Francine or Florence or something like that. There goes my memory again!"  
  
"By any chance was it Fiona?" Yugi prompted.  
  
"Why, yes, it was," Mrs. Turner exclaimed. She smiled. "I may be getting on in years, but my mind is just as sharp as ever. Those were no lucky guesses—you kids are on to something!"  
  
"Yes, we are, Mrs. Turner," Tea admitted.  
  
"Well, I hope I've been able to help in some way," Mrs. Turner said.  
  
"You have, Mrs. Turner," Yugi assured her. He paused. "One more thing before we leave—do you have any idea what they were talking about?"  
  
"Mr. Fielding never told me anything," Mrs. Turner replied. "But I did speak to Fiona. She seemed like a very sweet, but eccentric young lady, but she didn't give any indication as to what she was here for. She did assure me that it wasn't for any kind of romantic reasons," she laughed.  
  
"Well, thank you for all your help, Mrs. Turner," Yugi smiled.  
  
"We'll be sure to tell you everything when we get it all wrapped up," Joey added.  
  
"I would enjoy that very much," Mrs. Turner declared.  
****  
"Now what?" Tristan wondered as they walked down the street. "This case is just getting more confusing, Yugi."  
  
"You can say that again," Tea sighed.  
  
"Right now I think our best course of action would be to go question Madame Fiona," Yugi announced.  
  
Joey shuddered. "Oh man, do we have to? She'll just be sayin' again that me and Kaiba are gonna pass into the next life!"  
  
Yugi hid a smile. "She's our best lead now. Perhaps Fielding told her where he was planning to go."  
  
Joey sighed. "Oh, alright."  
****  
Before they even got to the porch to knock, Madame Fiona opened the door for them. "Ah, greetings," she smiled. "You wish to know about Bob, am I correct?"  
  
"You are," Yugi nodded.  
  
"Well, then, by all means, come in," the psychic purred.  
  
Joey gulped as they entered the infamous and now-familiar living room, and then screamed upon seeing a strange wolflike creature sitting on the couch.  
  
"Ah, I see you've met Frank," Madame Fiona said. "He also has happened to stop in to visit me! Frank, say hello to Yugi Muto, Joseph Wheeler, Tristan Taylor, Tea Gardner, Bakura, and Seto Kaiba." She indicated each one as she said their name. "Sadly, Joseph and Seto will not be with us for much longer," she said softly.  
  
"Rrrroarrr," the Wolfman replied, reaching out a paw to shake Joey's hand.  
  
Joey grinned nervously. "Eh, it's nice to meet you too," he said lamely.  
  
The Wolfman whined piteously and went into the kitchen.  
  
"Man, what was that?!" Tristan exclaimed.  
  
"Frank is my third cousin thrice removed," Madame Fiona smiled.  
  
"Oh really? . . . Uh, heh heh . . ." Joey collapsed on the sofa, running a hand through his hair. "Those must be some family reunions you have."  
  
"You are so amusing, Joseph," Madame Fiona purred.  
  
"Returning to the subject we came here about, what do you know about Bob Fielding?" Seto demanded.  
  
"He is not what he seems," Madame Fiona said mysteriously.  
  
"Oh really? What, does he lead another life as Spiderman or somethin'?" Joey said sarcastically.  
  
"He and I are both doing our best to find the Cobra Colony cult and stop them," she replied.  
  
"I see," Yugi said thoughtfully. "Have you had any success?"  
  
"Not much, but a little," Madame Fiona told him. "Bob has gone to a nearby town to follow a lead."  
  
"How come you can't just look into your crystal ball and find out what you want to know?" Joey asked doubtfully.  
  
"It does not always work that way, Joseph," Madame Fiona said. "We cannot always depend on crystal balls to tell us what we want to know. We must also go out and try to find things out for ourselves."  
  
Yugi smiled. "You are different from most psychics I've met."  
  
Madame Fiona smiled too, rather mischievously. "That is not to suggest, however, that I did not try to see in the crystal ball first."  
  
"What town did Bob go to?" Tea asked.  
  
"Cooperstown," Madame Fiona replied.  
  
"Oh, I know where that is," Bakura said.  
  
Yugi smiled. "Good, because we're going to go there." He turned back to the fortune teller. "Did Bob tell you what kind of a lead he'd found?"  
  
"He hoped he had found the meeting place of the cult," Madame Fiona replied. "I was just preparing to journey to Cooperstown myself when you arrived. After all, I don't intend to be left out of the adventure."  
  
"Would you like to come with us?" Tea offered.  
  
"Oh no, that is alright," Madame Fiona said. "I will get there in my own way." She looked directly at Joey, and he could tell that she knew that he thought she was a vampyre. He backed up nervously, right into a door that swung open, revealing a bottomless pit behind it.  
  
"Yaaaaaa!!" Joey grabbed onto the door frame frantically, and Yugi and Tristan ran to help him. When he was safely back on the solid floor, Joey turned to Madame Fiona angrily. "Why in the heck do you have a bottomless pit in your house?!" he demanded.  
  
"It isn't bottomless, Joseph," Madame Fiona told him. "But you really should be more careful."  
****  
"This is Cooperstown?" Joey said doubtfully as they drove down the small Main Street. "Man, there's hardly anything here."  
  
"That means it should be fairly easy to find Mr. Fielding, if he's still here," Tea commented.  
  
The limo stopped in front of what was probably the only hotel in the town. "We'll go in here and inquire about him," Seto decided.  
  
The chauffeur parked in front and everyone got out.  
  
"Something doesn't feel right," Tea remarked, shivering—and not entirely from the chilly autumn air.  
  
"I know what you mean, Tea," Yugi said grimly. "We haven't seen a single person since we arrived here. It seems completely deserted, and yet . . ."  
  
"It looks as though it was bustling with activity only a few moments before," Seto muttered, narrowing his eyes.  
  
Joey shuddered. "Oh man, I'm gettin' the heebie-jeebies . . ."  
  
They walked up to the door and Yugi opened it. No one was in sight anywhere. "I don't like the looks of this," he remarked.  
  
"You know, I read about a place like this somewhere in Arizona," Tristan said as they headed upstairs to check for life. "Everyone in the town vanished without a trace, and whenever anyone would go to investigate the town, they would find everything all set up like people had been there five minutes ago, but the whole place would be deserted! Then, just a week or so after they investigated the place, the curious travelers would usually disappear without a trace as well, never being heard from again."  
  
"Oh man, now that's all I needed to hear!" Joey grumbled.  
  
Everywhere they went in the town, it was the same thing—they found such things as open books, lights turned on, even food on the restaurants' tables—but no people anywhere.  
  
"I haven't even seen any animals," Bakura said, wide-eyed.  
  
"There's definitely something strange and sinister afoot," Yugi declared.  
  
That's when the old bell in the town's hall started ringing.  
  
"Come on!" Joey said, angry now. "Now's our chance to catch whoever's behind this sick scheme!"  
  
Without another word, the six teens all ran across the street and into the building, all the while hearing the bell's eerie tolls.  
  
"Up this way!" Tristan called, opening a door marked "Bell Tower."  
  
Soon they were at the top, and Seto threw the door open, just as the bell's chimes ceased. They all stopped in astonishment at the sight before them. The bell was perfectly still and silent, and no one was in sight.  
  
"Oh man! There's no way anyone could've gotten out of here!" Tristan gasped. "The bell was ringing right up to when Kaiba opened the door!" He pulled on the cord. The bell barely moved. 


	15. Franceska

NOTE: Kleenex warning again **Waaah!**  
  
  
"Yugi, this is getting creepy!" Tea cried. "Where could everyone in the town have gone?!"  
  
"That's a question I wish I had the answer to, Tea," Yugi sighed. "Right now, it's anyone's guess, but I'm pretty sure that whatever it was, it wasn't good."  
  
"Man, I bet that creepy psychic set us up!" Joey burst out as they walked back to Seto's limo. "She probably rigged all this up—or maybe it was even group hypnosis!" He gestured wildly. "Maybe this is all one big delusion!"  
  
"What is it with you and group hypnosis?" Tristan sighed.  
  
"It's possible, isn't it?" Joey returned.  
  
There was a silence as everyone climbed into the limo and drove off.  
  
"What are we going to do now?" Bakura wondered.  
  
Before anyone could answer, Tea gasped and pointed to a strange, moving cluster in the near distance. "What's that?" she exclaimed.  
  
"I can hear weird chanting," Bakura commented.  
  
"Drive closer so we can investigate," Seto ordered his chauffeur, who obeyed reluctantly.  
  
"Whoa! Check it out!" Joey cried when they got closer, pointing at a large group of people in dark robes doing an eerie dance on a mountain near the town. The buildings of Cooperstown were still visible from the mountain road.  
  
"It must be some kind of cult ritual," Yugi decided. "Perhaps this is the Cobra Colony!"  
  
As they watched, one of the robed figures raised its staff at the city and a burst of dark lightning shot out, making the city's buildings vanish completely.  
  
"Oh man! Did you see that?!" Joey gasped.  
  
Yugi nodded grimly. "They're wielding evil power."  
  
"And if they can make a city disappear—people, buildings, and all—I'd hate to think what else they're capable of doing," Tristan remarked.  
  
"We should call the authorities," Yugi said grimly.  
  
"They'll think we're nuts," Joey sighed.  
  
"I'm sure you're right, Wheeler," Seto remarked, picking up the phone. "But let's at least see if the police can tell us something about that cult."  
  
Yugi nodded in agreement.  
  
After a few minutes, Seto hung up the phone and turned back to the others. "The desk sergeant I spoke to said that the dancers sound like a nature cult registered as Mother Earth's Disciples, and that they have no criminal record."  
  
"Did you tell him about the hocus pocus we just saw?" Joey, who had been distracted by the robed figures' eerie dance, demanded.  
  
"I asked him if this nature cult claims to be able to perform magic," Seto replied. "The desk sergeant said that they do. I then told him about everyone in Cooperstown disappearing, and he said he'd send a squad car out. I had to tell him that the 'nature cult' just made what was left of the town vanish," he said wryly.  
  
"What did he say about that?" Tristan asked.  
  
"He asked me if I was taking sleeping medication," Seto muttered. "I told him we'd all seen it."  
  
"Then what did he say?" Joey wanted to know.  
  
"Nothing. He probably thinks we're all crazy." Seto didn't look too happy.  
  
"I guess you're glad you kept it an anonymous call, eh?" Joey grinned. Seto didn't answer.  
  
"Let's go back to where the town was," Yugi said. "The squad car should be here any minute."  
  
Seto nodded. "Drive back to what's left of Cooperstown," he told his chauffeur.  
****  
The town was still missing when they drove up, and the squad car was just pulling in.  
  
"Holy smokes!" the officer exclaimed, as he and his partner got out of the car. "That guy on the phone wasn't nuts after all!"  
  
"Are you sure we're in the right place?" the other officer gasped.  
  
"Oh, you're in the right place, officer," Seto replied, stepping out of the shadows.  
  
"Are you the anonymous caller who phoned the station?" the first officer asked.  
  
"I am," Seto nodded.  
  
Both police officers held up their badges. "I'm Detective Kraft, and this is Officer Ricks," the first one introduced.  
  
"Seto Kaiba," the boy returned.  
  
After Yugi and the others introduced themselves as well, Detective Kraft asked, "How long ago was it when you arrived in the town and found it devoid of all life?"  
  
"Probably a couple of hours ago now," Yugi replied.  
  
"And we saw the weird cult dancers about an hour ago," Joey added.  
  
"I think they're probably gone by now, though," Bakura said.  
  
"Well, let's go check it out," Officer Ricks suggested. "Show us where you saw them."  
  
"It was over on that mountain," Yugi replied, pointing. "We'll go with you."  
****  
"This looks like the place where the Mother Earth's Disciples meet, alright," Detective Kraft remarked. "But it also looks like they've probably cleared out by now," he sighed.  
  
"But we can still search the area for clues," Officer Ricks said.  
  
The two policemen and the six teens started investigating around the brush and stones where the dancers had been performing their ritual.  
  
Bakura, who had wandered over to some trampled grass a little bit away from where the others were, gasped as he noticed something shiny amongst the long blades and picked it up. "A cameo pin," he said to himself, "shaped like a cobra! . . . But that must mean that Mother Earth's Disciples are really the Cobra Colony!"  
  
"That's correct, my young meddler," an evil voice hissed, and a dark-robed figure stepped out in front of him.  
  
Bakura's blood ran cold and he tried to scream for help, but to his utter horror he found himself unable to speak. {Yami, help me!} he pleaded through their mental connection.  
  
"The spirit in your Millennium Ring can't help you now," the dark-robed figure sneered.  
  
Bakura's eyes went wide. Once again someone had tuned in to their mental connection! Since some kind of dark power was keeping him from speaking aloud, he demanded through his thoughts, "What have you done to me . . . and to him?!" He tried to back up but found himself frozen to the spot.  
  
"Let's just say that while his powers are impressive, mine are more so," the figure replied, laying an ice-cold hand on Bakura's shoulder. A chill spread the boy's body and he felt himself growing weak. Just before he passed out, he heard the voice laugh and say, "You will never tell what you know to anyone!"  
****  
Yugi froze, his violet eyes narrowed in concern.  
  
"Yugi, what is it?" Tea gasped.  
  
"Where is Bakura?" Yugi asked, looking around.  
  
Tea's eyes went wide. "I don't see him anywhere!"  
  
"He was over there a minute ago," Tristan replied, pointing over at a nearby clearing.  
  
"He's not there anymore," Yugi said grimly. "He's been taken captive by the forces of darkness." The others saw that his Millennium Puzzle was glowing and that the third eye had appeared on his forehead. He shook his head sadly. "And they don't intend to let him get away alive."  
****  
Bakura stirred, moaning softly. {Yami, are you there?} he asked, and received no answer. Either their connection had been blocked, or his Yami simply wasn't responding.  
  
That's when a strange sensation came over him and he opened his eyes slowly. He was hanging upsidedown!  
  
Memories came rushing back—the dark figure, its paralyzing powers, its icy touch. . . . "Where am I?" Bakura rasped, relieved to find that he could speak again.  
  
"You don't want to know," a female voice hissed.  
  
Bakura turned and found himself looking at a blonde woman, her nasty smile revealing abnormally long canine teeth.  
  
"Who are you? What are you?" the frightened boy exclaimed, trying frantically to pull himself upright, but in vain. All he could do was hang upsidedown helplessly.  
  
"I am Franceska, and you know what I am," the vampyress purred, brushing Bakura's long hair away and stroking his cheek.  
  
He pulled away in disgust and fear. "What are you going to do to me?"  
  
Franceska didn't answer. Instead she laid a hand on his forehead, sending horrible images into the boy's mind with her powers. Images of death and destruction, images of pain and torment. . . . Images of Bakura's friends being tortured in the most horrible ways.  
  
The poor boy couldn't take it anymore. "Stop! Stop! Please . . ." Tears streamed down Bakura's face and he closed his eyes, trying to block the horrible images from his mind.  
  
"This is what will happen when the Cobra Colony takes over the world," Franceska hissed. "Evil will prevail, and there is nothing you can do to stop us!" She slapped him roughly across his face and dug her long fingernails into his arm painfully.  
  
"No! You're wrong!" Bakura cried, wincing at the pain. "Evil will never prevail! I'll stop you myself if I have to!" he said bravely.  
  
"Insolent, foolish boy," Franceska snapped. "You could never stop us, nor would you even have the courage or strength to try!" She threw her hands up in the air, summoning many dark wraiths. "You need a demonstration of our true power. Show him what you did to the spirit of his Ring!" she ordered.  
  
The wraiths obeyed, sending a mental picture into Bakura's mind of his Yami being overpowered and beaten harshly. The wraiths used their dark lightning on him and he vanished into nothingness, screaming in agony. Bakura gasped, feeling his Yami's pain explode through his own body.  
  
"You see, we have even destroyed your powerful Yami when he tried to retrieve you from our clutches," Franceska smirked. "What possible hope can a weak little boy like you have against our powers?"  
  
Bakura closed his eyes. His Yami was really gone?  
  
He had no time to consider how he felt about that when he was punched viciously in the chest. He screamed in pain, gasping for breath.  
  
"Go on, weakling, try and defend yourself," Franceska taunted.  
  
"This isn't a fair fight!" Bakura cried, trying to catch the wraith's hand and restrain it, but instead was violently shoved backwards, still helplessly hanging upsidedown from the ceiling. The wraiths all ganged up on him, punching, kicking, and pounding his poor body. The rope holding him up snapped, sending him flying across the room. Hot tears coursed down his face as he was kicked hard against the wall. He struggled to get up but crashed back to the floor in pain and cried out.  
  
Franceska sneered. "You fool. You see, you are no match for us! Now I will finish you off!" She moved in closer, her fangs glistening.  
  
Bakura's eyes went wide. "No . . . no . . . please . . ." he rasped, inching away in terror. He could barely move. Please help me, he prayed. Please . . . I don't want to die!  
  
Just as Franceska lunged in for the kill, a bright light appeared directly in front of Bakura. "Stop!" a commanding voice ordered. "You will not harm him any more!"  
  
Franceska gasped, shielding herself from the light. "Impossible! Who are you? How dare you intrude on my turf!"  
  
"You cannot torment innocent people like this. Be gone!"  
  
Bakura looked up and gasped as a shining figure in the light raised her right hand and banished Franceska, who screamed in anger and yelled, "You have not defeated me yet! I will be back!"   
  
Completely drained of his strength and badly hurt, Bakura moaned softly and closed his eyes.  
  
A gentle hand touched his shoulder and his eyes opened again. A beautiful young girl was kneeling in front of him, her violet eyes loving and kind.  
  
"Who are you?" Bakura asked in wonder.  
  
"Kasumi," was her reply. "Come—we must leave this place. It is full of evil."  
  
"But I'm too weak," Bakura rasped. "They beat me!"  
  
"Have faith," Kasumi whispered. "You will be strengthened." She gently took hold of Bakura's hands and raised him up. To his surprise, he was able to stand. With Kasumi's help, Bakura was able to stumble out a door and into the cover of pre-dawn darkness.  
  
"Where are we?" he asked.  
  
"We are on the outskirts of Domino City," Kasumi told him. "We will go to the game shop. You can make it there," she whispered. "Be strong, sweet Bakura."  
  
Bakura smiled weakly. He didn't know how long it would last, but right now he felt strong enough to keep going. 


	16. Hallucinations

NOTES: Another Kleenex warning, and another "this is not yaoi" reminder ;D  
  
  
Yugi and the others had searched everywhere for Bakura, with no success. The police had put out an all-points bulletin for the missing boy and also were looking everywhere they could.  
  
"Yugi, this is terrible," Tea cried. "I was so afraid that something like this would happen. What if we never see Bakura again?"  
  
"We'll find him, Tea," Yugi assured her. "We have to have faith."  
  
"Yeah, I'm sure his Yami will protect him," Joey said.  
  
Yugi sighed inwardly. He had the feeling that Yami Bakura was not able to protect Bakura now . . . and that perhaps he never would be able to again.  
  
They entered the game shop, feeling defeated. They had looked everywhere, praying to know what to do, and they had even visited Madame Fiona, but the psychic hadn't been home.  
  
"We've been up all night," Joey remarked groggily, stifling a yawn.  
  
"Where could Bakura be?" Tristan threw his hands in the air in despair.  
****  
Bakura staggered to the door of the game shop and leaned against the door frame, trying to catch his breath. He had made it! Somehow, someway, he had had the strength to keep going—and he had made it!  
  
"I knew you could do it, Bakura," Kasumi whispered.  
  
Bakura turned to thank her for her help, but she was gone.  
  
Weakly he pushed the door open and everyone gasped. "Bakura!" they all exclaimed in unison.  
  
Bakura smiled weakly and collapsed on the floor, his strength finally depleted.  
  
"Call a doctor!" Yugi ordered, kneeling down next to the unconscious boy.  
  
Seto was already at the phone.  
  
"What happened to Bakura, Yugi?" Tea asked worriedly.  
  
"He looks like he was beaten very badly," Yugi replied grimly. "I don't know how he ever made it here."  
****  
"How is he, doctor?" Tea asked anxiously. They had laid Bakura upstairs in Yugi's bed and the doctor was examining him.  
  
The doctor shook his head, removing his stethoscope. "He's delirious," he told them.  
  
Bakura moaned. "Don't hurt me," he pleaded, his voice slurred. "Please don't hurt me!"  
  
"Most likely, he's reliving the experience of being beaten up," the doctor told them. "It was quite a shock to his system."  
  
"Poor Bakura," Tea whispered, a tear falling from her eye.  
  
"Will he be alright?" Yugi asked.  
  
The doctor sighed. "His physical wounds will heal, but he's been injured emotionally as well. Those wounds may or may not heal as easily."  
  
"Bakura? It's Tea," the girl said, looking into the boy's tortured, vacant eyes.  
  
"Stay away from me, you vampyress!" Bakura screamed, sounding terrified. Tea leaped back in shock.  
  
"Don't take what he says personally," the doctor told her. "He doesn't even know you're here. In his mind, you are the person he addresses as 'the vampyress.'"  
  
Yugi, Tea, and the other three teens exchanged knowing and worried Looks.  
  
"What can we do?" Joey asked.  
  
"I'll give him a sedative," the doctor replied. "If you can bring his fever down, his delirium should stop."  
  
Bakura thrashed frantically. "No, no, oh please stay away from me!!" he cried. "You've already killed my Yami! You won't kill me too!"  
  
Gently the doctor injected the drug into Bakura's neck and the boy relaxed, whispering, "Please help me, Kasumi," before the drug took effect.  
  
Seto gasped, hearing the familiar name.  
  
The doctor raised an eyebrow. "Does that mean something to you, Mr. Kaiba?" he asked.  
  
Seto nodded slowly. "Yes it does," he replied, not elaborating.  
  
The doctor looked at him for a minute, then turned to the door. "I'm going to talk to your grandfather, Yugi. Don't leave Bakura alone at any time," he warned.  
  
"We won't," Yugi assured him. "Thank you for your help, doctor."  
  
When they were alone with Bakura, Joey exclaimed, "What did Bakura mean when he said they had killed his Yami? That doesn't make sense; how can his Yami die?"  
  
"It was probably just something he said in his delirium, Joey," Tristan replied.  
  
Yugi shook his head slowly. "I don't know about that. We know that these wraiths have stronger powers than even Yami Bakura has. What if they did destroy him somehow?"  
  
"Well, I don't know about his Yami, but they definitely did something to Bakura," Tea said angrily, laying a damp washcloth on the boy's forehead. "It's so hard to see him acting so terrified and delirious . . ."  
  
"And did you hear what he said about a vampyress?" Joey exclaimed. "Madame Fiona must've hurt him! I knew that weird lady was nothin' but trouble . . ."  
  
"Hold on, Joey, don't jump to conclusions," Yugi told him. "True, it could've been Madame Fiona, but I somehow have the feeling that she was not involved."  
  
"If it wasn't her, then who was it?" Joey shot back.  
  
Yugi shook his head. "I don't know."  
  
Joey slammed his fist into his palm. "Well, I'm not gonna just sit around and do nothin'! I'm gonna find out who did this to Bakura and make 'em pay!" Before anyone could say another word, he was out the door.  
  
"He shouldn't go alone," Tea remarked.  
  
Tristan nodded. "You got that right. Joey always gets himself into some kind of trouble."  
  
"I'll go with him." Seto picked up his briefcase and headed for the door. "The rest of you should stay with Bakura. Call me if and when he wakes up." He left without another word.  
  
"That should be interesting," Tristan commented. "Joey and Kaiba always come to blows about something or other."  
  
Tea wasn't half-listening. She gently touched Bakura's forehead, hoping that his fever was going down. "Poor Bakura," she whispered.  
  
"I wonder how he got away from whoever was torturing him," Tristan said. "I'm sure they meant to kill him."  
  
Yugi nodded, checking Bakura's pulse. "Something happened that saved his life. I wonder if Kasumi had something to do with it . . . whoever she is."  
****  
Joey whirled around. He was certain he was being followed, but every time he turned around, no one was there. "Oh man . . . I must be gettin' paranoid!" he decided.  
  
He stopped in front of Madame Fiona's house and grinned mischievously. "Perfect! No one's home!"  
  
"Do you know how many years you could get for breaking and entering?"  
  
Joey jumped a mile high and turned around. "Kaiba!! What are you doing??! Were you followin' me? Don't answer that," he said quickly.  
  
Seto shrugged. "You're not going in there without me. I'm getting as fed up with this mystery as you are."  
  
Joey sighed. He didn't really want to spend the next few hours with Seto Kaiba, but it didn't seem as though he had a choice.  
****  
Bakura screamed. "No, Yugi, watch out!"  
  
Yugi jumped. "He's awake, but he's still delirious," he said grimly.  
  
"Bakura, what do you see?" Tea asked.  
  
Bakura gasped. He couldn't look. "You horrible, vile person! How could you do that to Yugi?! How could you do it to anyone?!" He started to cry. "All of my friends are dead . . . I'm the only one left!"  
  
"Bakura, we're here," Tea said, her heart breaking. "We're alright!"  
  
"Oh man . . . I hate to think what they must've done to him," Tristan muttered.  
  
"Yugi, what can we do?" Tea worried.  
  
Yugi looked sad. "I don't know." He laid a hand on Bakura's shoulder. "Bakura, come back to us," he pleaded.  
  
Bakura jerked away. "Don't touch me! Stay away! Please . . . just stay away!" In his tormented mind, Yugi, Tea, and Tristan were Franceska and her wraiths, and there was no escape from their evil powers. They had killed all of the others and were now after him. "Yami, where are you?" he moaned.  
  
"Bakura, I'm here," the familiar voice replied. Bakura couldn't see him anywhere, but his voice echoed all around him. "Rest now, you foolish mortal."  
  
Bakura sighed and closed his eyes.  
  
"He's going to sleep," Tea said in surprise and relief.  
  
"What made him calm down?" Tristan wondered.  
  
Yugi smiled. "I'm not sure, but let's pray that when he wakes up the next time he'll be back to normal."  
****  
"Oh man, look at this place!" Joey gawked, staring at the unusual furniture and knick-knacks.  
  
"Never mind the decor. Just look for anything suspicious," Seto grumbled.  
  
Joey gulped. "You mean like that?!" He pointed in horror at a room with a coffin in the middle of it.  
  
Seto raised an eyebrow and went in for a closer look. He raised the lid and stepped back in shock. "What the . . ."  
  
"Eh? What is it, Kaiba?" Joey asked.  
  
"Have a look, Wheeler," Seto replied, moving out of the way.  
  
Joey leaned over and looked in. "Oh man . . ." Inside was a fluffy pillow and a blanket. "This has gotta be a joke!"  
  
"You're the one who always says that the psychic woman is a vampyre," Seto told him.  
  
"Yeah, I know, but still . . ." Joey ran a hand through his messy blonde hair. "To actually see somethin' like this is kinda disconcertin' . . ."  
  
"Let's find the room where she might keep a computer," Seto said. "We'd be more likely to find something out from her computer's data than from a coffin in her bedroom."  
  
"Lead on, Sherlock," Joey said sarcastically, following him down the hall. 


	17. Prophecy Fulfilled?

NOTES: Another Kleenex warning **Bear with me!! Last one, I promise** and **sighs wearily** another "this is not yaoi" reminder! ^_~ What can I say? I don't want my stuff mistaken for what it's not ^^  
  
  
Bakura moaned softly. What had happened? The last thing he remembered was collapsing on Yugi's floor. Where was he now? He felt warm and safe.  
  
He slowly opened one eye, then quickly shut it again. The light was too bright, almost blinding. He rested for a few minutes, then tried again. This time the light didn't hurt his eyes.  
  
"Ah, Bakura, you are awake, I see."  
  
Bakura turned at the sound of the voice. It couldn't be . . . could it?  
  
But it was. His Yami was standing next to the bed, his expression unreadable, as usual, tho Bakura could see the faintest trace of relief in his eyes.  
  
"Yami?" Bakura's own eyes went wide. "But . . . how? They . . . they killed you . . . I saw it . . . I felt your pain as you died . . ."  
  
Yami Bakura shook his head. "Foolish mortal. I cannot die; I'm already dead!"  
  
Bakura blinked, confused. "Well, that's what I always thought, but . . ."  
  
"They didn't kill me, you dolt," Yami Bakura snapped, then sighed, as if he hadn't meant to sound so rude. "Save your strength. You need to get better." He pointed a forefinger at Bakura in emphasis. He would tell Bakura what had happened later, if he felt like it. The wraiths had first sealed him in the Millennium Ring until they had gotten Bakura to the building they were using as a temporary headquarters. Then he had managed to tear free of the Ring and had tried to rescue Bakura, but the wraiths had attacked him and—in spite of what he told Bakura—they had very nearly destroyed him, but they obviously hadn't succeeded, which was a mystery even to the ancient thief. He had woken up on the floor of his soul room several hours before.  
  
"Am I hurt badly?" Bakura asked softly.  
  
Yami Bakura looked frustrated. "I don't know! I'm not the doctor!"  
  
That's when two things happened at once. Tristan, who had been dozing in a chair, woke up suddenly. "What the . . . Bakura! You're awake!" he declared.  
  
Then the door opened and Yugi and Tea rushed in. "Bakura!" Yugi exclaimed.  
  
"Are you alright?" Tea asked.  
  
"You really scared us, man," Tristan added.  
  
Bakura smiled weakly. "I'm not in pain. . . . I just feel exhausted."  
  
"I can well imagine, pal," Tristan said, laying a hand on his shoulder. "You were delirious for hours."  
  
Tea gently touched Bakura's forehead and smiled in relief. "Your fever's gone," she told him.  
  
"That's good to know," Bakura smiled back. He blinked. "What time is it? It must be late."  
  
Tea nodded. "It's almost midnight."  
  
"Midnight? Oh my." Bakura looked out the window at the cloudy, moonless night. "Where are the others?" he asked, suddenly realizing they weren't there.  
  
"That's a good question, Bakura," Yugi remarked with a sigh, then suddenly noticed Bakura's Yami, who had sat down in a chair next to the bed. "You! But you're . . ."  
  
"You weren't expecting to see me?" Yami Bakura's lips curled up in a nasty grin. "It's already been proven that you cannot get rid of me."  
  
"Well, what's one more strange occurrence? We've been having so many of 'em," Tristan sighed. "I wonder how Joey and Kaiba are getting along."  
  
"Famously, I'm sure," Tea replied, and Bakura chuckled.  
****  
As it turned out, Joey and Kaiba were not getting along, as usual.  
  
"Aren't you about done with that metal box?" Joey asked grumpily as Seto clicked on another suspicious-looking computer document to look at.  
  
"Why don't you check the files, Wheeler?" Seto shot back just as grumpily, pointing to the filing cabinet.  
  
"If the police catch us in here, we'll both be in big trouble," Joey persisted.  
  
"It was your idea to come in here, Wheeler, not mine," Seto replied.  
  
"But you didn't protest!" Joey said loudly.  
  
Seto was silent for a long time, then finally said, "It won't help things any to be arguing like this." He stood up and walked to the door. "I think we have all the information we need to clear Madame Fiona's name. She seems to be working against the Cobra Colony, just as she said."  
  
"Well, good for her," Joey muttered.  
  
They left Madame Fiona's house via the back door and walked back up the street. "Oh man! 1313 Dead End Drive is back," Joey exclaimed, pointing ahead at the crumbling mansion, which indeed had returned to its spot in the field. "And I just saw a scarecrow run across the yard!" Without another word, the Brooklyn boy ran over to the gate and, swinging it open, dashed inside. Seto followed, feeling uneasy about something that he couldn't quite determine.  
  
Joey followed the scarecrow in through a window and then looked around, confused. "Hey, where did it go?" he demanded. "It was here just a second ago!"  
  
"Maybe it went outside, which is what we should be doing," Seto muttered as he climbed in after Joey.  
  
"Go out? We just got in! I never figured you for a chicken, Kaiba," Joey taunted.  
  
Seto looked justifiably angry. "I am not a chicken, Wheeler," he snapped. "But I don't feel good about us staying in here."  
  
Joey shrugged. "Sounds like a case of the willies to me." He opened the door to the sitting room and wandered in.  
  
"You're a good one to speak," Seto shot back. "As I recall, you have been the one getting scared on this case—not me."  
  
Joey grunted and didn't answer. After exploring the sitting room and finding nothing, he opened a door at the other end of the room and then screamed as something big and white flew out and plopped over him like a net.  
  
Seto raised an eyebrow. "See what I mean?"  
  
Joey wrestled with the cobweb and threw it into a far corner of the room, muttering angrily.  
  
"I doubt that this room has been occupied in this century or the last," Seto remarked.  
  
Joey looked serious annoyed and turned to another door. "Bingo!" he said triumphantly. "Look!" He pointed to a scarecrow draped over an ancient rocking chair.  
  
"This scarecrow isn't alive," Seto said, pinching one of its arms.  
  
"Not now, sure, but it was," Joey said, picking the straw man up. "Let's take it with us."  
  
"Fine," Seto growled.  
  
Joey wandered to the door and opened it. "Hey, it's the dumbwaiter!" he announced.  
  
"Wheeler, I'm not kidding—we need to get out of here!" Seto said abruptly as Joey started poking around the dumbwaiter.  
  
"You're not starting that again, are you?" Joey snapped.  
  
"I mean it, Wheeler," Seto told him.  
  
"Yeah, whatever," Joey laughed, walking into the dumbwaiter and out the other end, winding up in the kitchen.  
  
"Wheeler, I'm tired of arguing with you—we're leaving NOW!!" Seto ordered.  
  
"And just who do you think you are to tell me what I can and can't do?" Joey shot back. "What—do you think I'm some scared little puppy who'll obey your every command?" he yelled, remembering some past experiences and a nightmare he'd had quite a while back at the Duelist Kingdom. "Well, guess what, pal—you're wrong!"  
  
Seto looked taken aback, then angry.  
  
Before he could respond, an explosion ripped through the house and both he and Joey were thrown out through the window by the force of the blast. That was the last thing Joey remembered before everything went black.  
****  
When Joey opened his eyes, he couldn't for the life of him remember what had happened. It was almost completely dark all around him. There wasn't even any moonlight, since the sky had clouded over.  
  
"Oh man," he moaned, sitting up shakily. "My head hurts."  
  
He looked around blearily. Debris was everywhere—plaster, bricks, pieces of wood. . . . There had obviously been some kind of explosion, but try as he might, Joey could not remember anything about it, nor where he was. He idly wondered why the area was so deserted. Why, for instance, hadn't the fire department been called? Maybe he was in the sticks and there had simply been no one around to call any fire department. Yeah, that made sense.  
  
He paused, suddenly remembering something. Hadn't someone else been with him?  
  
He stood up and stumbled on through the rubble for a few minutes before abruptly tripping over something. "Yaaaaaa!!!" he yelped as he went down, then felt around to see what he'd fallen over. A cold chill went up his spine. "Kaiba?!" he whispered, feeling his hand brush against a familiar trenchcoat. "Hey, Kaiba, get up, man," he said, shaking the other boy on the shoulder. There was no response. "Hey, what happened, man?" the Brooklyn-born boy asked nervously. "Why won't you get up?"  
  
After a few minutes of this, Joey was starting to get very frustrated. "Hey, come on, man, don't tease me," he pleaded. Still no response. Joey grabbed Kaiba by the collar of his trenchcoat and hoisted him up.  
  
He might as well have been holding a ragdoll. Seto Kaiba was completely limp and his skin was pale and cold.  
  
"Hey, man, you're scarin' me!" Joey declared.  
  
Suddenly memories came flooding back. He remembered that they had been investigating that old house that kept disappearing . . . Kaiba had wanted to leave, but Joey had insisted that they keep hanging around. . . . Then he had gotten really mad at Kaiba and had started yelling . . . And then the house had exploded, sending them both out the window.  
  
And he remembered something else, too—Madame Fiona's prophecy.  
  
"Oh no. Oh no. Oh man . . ." Joey sank back to the ground, Kaiba's lifeless body in his arms. If Kaiba was really . . . dead, Joey realized with a jolt that it might be his fault. He grabbed the other boy's wrist, checking for a pulse. Nothing. Kaiba didn't appear to be breathing, either.  
  
Something trickled down Joey's face and he brushed it away angrily, expecting it to be blood. Instead he discovered a teardrop. He was crying. "Man, I never thought I'd be bawling over Seto Kaiba," he remarked. He shook the other boy roughly. "Hey, come on, man, stay with me here," he pleaded. "Your brother needs you!"  
  
When there was still no response, Joey hung his head sadly and closed his eyes. "Oh man, Kaiba . . ." What was he going to do now? 


	18. New Plans

Joey had been there for what seemed like ages, berating his stubbornness—which had now cost Kaiba his life. He couldn't believe he had insisted they keep hanging around that old mansion.  
  
"Kaiba . . . I'm sorry, man," he whispered softly. He shook his head sadly. "You were right—we shouldn't have gone in there. Now you're . . ." He didn't finish the sentence. "Oh man, it's all my fault," he reprimanded himself. "How am I gonna tell Mokuba?"  
  
Somewhere in the distance he heard a clock chime midnight. It was Halloween.  
  
"Wheeler, you should have listened to me."  
  
Joey nodded sadly. "Yeah, Kaiba, I know. It's probably the only time I'd have ever agreed with you, but . . ." He stopped suddenly, his eyes wide. "Huh?! Waiiiit a minute!!" He looked down at Kaiba's body in his arms and nearly fell over in shock. The other boy's eyes were open and he was looking at Joey! "Kaiba??! You're . . . you're alive?!" Joey gasped, unable to believe it.  
  
Kaiba nodded, smiling crookedly. "Oh yeah, Wheeler, I'm alive." He pushed Joey aside gently and sat up, rubbing his head. "I might be tempted to scold you for nearly getting the both of us killed, but from what I heard, you've been beating yourself up about it already."  
  
Joey didn't deny it. "I was really worried about you, Kaiba," he admitted. He closed one eye and looked at the young businessman suspiciously. "How long have you been awake, anyway?"  
  
"Long enough to hear you worrying about how you would tell Mokuba what happened," Seto replied. "I didn't have the strength to speak until after the clock chimed."  
  
Joey nodded slowly. "Eh, are you sure you're not immortal or somethin'?" he asked as he helped the other boy stand up.  
  
"I'm sure, Wheeler," Seto smirked. "I'm just good at staying alive."  
  
Now that Joey knew that Seto was miraculously alright, his attention turned to another problem. "When I woke up, I wondered why no one had called the fire department about the explosion," he said. "Now I think I have the answer—we've teleported."  
  
Seto looked around. "I suspected as much."  
  
Joey freaked out. "Oh man, how're we gonna get back without Yugi's Millennium Puzzle?!" he moaned.  
  
"Stay calm, Wheeler," Seto told him. "Let's try to figure out where we are."  
  
"But last time, we teleported first to England and then to the Sierra Mountains!" Joey protested. "We're probably nowhere near Domino City!"  
  
Seto raised an eyebrow at him. "As a matter of fact, I believe we're on the edge of town in a questionable neighborhood." He glanced around at the dilapidated houses surrounding them.  
  
Joey, realizing Kaiba was right, grinned sheepishly. "Eh, of course. I knew it all the time," he bluffed.  
  
Seto ignored that remark. "Let's get out of here before it teleports again," he directed. "And bring your friend if you still want to." He indicated the scarecrow, which had somehow made it through the explosion in one piece and was laying on top of some bricks. Joey quickly grabbed it before following Seto off the property.  
  
When they were about half a block up the street, Joey turned back curiously to have another look and gasped. "Kaiba! The place disappeared again!!"  
  
Seto turned around to look as well, then shrugged. "Then it's a good thing we got out of there when we did," he said.  
****  
The doctor set the stethoscope down and smiled. "You, young man, are in remarkably good condition after what you've been through," he said to Bakura.  
  
Bakura looked relieved. "Thank you, doctor. Will I have to stay in bed long?"  
  
"I don't know," the doctor admitted. "Call me tomorrow morning and tell me how you feel then."  
  
After he left, Yugi turned to Bakura and smiled. "You can stay here tonight, Bakura."  
  
"Oh, I wouldn't want to take your bed," Bakura replied wide-eyed.  
  
"That's okay," Yugi told him. "I'll just sleep on this cot here."  
  
"Well, if you're sure . . ." Bakura said slowly. "I . . . I guess I don't know whether I'd be able to walk home tonight."  
  
"Of course you shouldn't," Tea exclaimed. "Stay here with Yugi and his grandpa."  
  
Bakura smiled and laid back against the soft pillows. "I think I will. Thank you, Yugi."  
  
Yugi smiled too. "It's no problem at all."  
  
Then the door opened and Joey and Kaiba entered.  
  
"Where have you two been?!" Tea demanded.  
  
"You look like you've been through something awful!" Yugi exclaimed, taking in their frazzled appearances.  
  
Joey sighed and leaned against the doorframe. "Eh, well, other than finding that Madame Fiona's probably innocent, catching a scarecrow, and nearly bein' blown to Kingdom Come, nothing much happened," he said sarcastically.  
  
Everyone gasped.  
  
"Oh my," Bakura exclaimed. "That's terrible!"  
  
Joey grinned. "Hey, pal, so you're back in the real world again?"  
  
"I suppose I am," Bakura replied with a smile.  
  
At that moment, Yami Bakura, who had been raiding the refrigerator, pushed his way past Joey and Kaiba and leaned back in a chair with a bottle of chocolate milk.  
  
"Hey!" Joey said indignantly. "Watch it . . ." He trailed off. "You!! Oh man . . ."  
  
Yami Bakura only laughed nastily. Seto looked unfazed and unsurprised by the ancient tomb raider's reappearance.  
  
Bakura had to chuckle at Joey's expression of shock mixed with disgust, then suddenly gasped. "I just remembered something," he exclaimed.  
  
"What is it, Bakura?" Yugi asked.  
  
"Well, right before I was captured, I found a pin on the ground shaped like a cobra," Bakura replied. "I realized that the whole Mother Earth's Disciples thing must be a front for the Cobra Colony."  
  
Yugi nodded and sighed. "I suspected as much," he said. He paused. "I have an idea how maybe we can finally bring this mystery to a close . . . but it's dangerous."  
  
"Eh, no problem, Yug," Joey said boldly. "What's a little more danger?"  
  
The others all nodded. "We're not afraid," Bakura said.   
  
Tea sighed. "But I'm worried about you guys' safety!" she objected. "These villains are ruthless!"  
  
"That's why they have to be stopped," Seto said. "What's your plan, Yugi?" he asked.  
  
Yugi sighed again. "Well, I was thinking that maybe we could try to infiltrate 'Mother Earth's Disciples' if they have another moonlight dance soon."  
  
"You mean we should find some creepy robes and prance around among the cult members?" Joey danced around in a scarily accurate imitation of the cult members' ritual, nearly knocking over Seto and Tristan in the process.  
  
"Hey, watch it, Joey!" Tristan scolded, ducking.  
  
Seto also backed out of Joey's way and leaned against the wall. "No thank you," he said flatly. "I don't intend to go out there waving my arms like windmills." He paused. "I'll tell you what I'd be willing to do instead—pose as a guard."  
  
"That's actually not a bad idea, Kaiba," Yugi smiled.  
  
"I can probably find some dark robes at a Halloween store," Tea volunteered reluctantly. "But I still don't know if I like this idea. What if we're caught? Do you know what they'd do to us if they found out that we weren't really part of the cult?"  
  
Yugi nodded. "I've considered all of it, over and over again. I know it's very risky, and I don't like to put any of you in danger either . . ."  
  
"Hey, Yug, I told you, man—it's cool," Joey said. "We're not afraid of the danger," he said boldly. "Wild horses couldn't keep me away!"  
  
Yugi smiled. "I'll call the police later on and see what they can tell me about the 'Mother Earth's Disciples' and their rituals," he said. "But for now, I think we should all get some sleep."  
  
Everyone nodded in agreement.  
  
"One thing," Joey spoke up. "They probably think Kaiba and me both got creamed in the explosion. We might be able to work it to our advantage by not lettin' them know that we're still alive and kickin'," he suggested.  
  
Yugi nodded slowly. "I think I understand what you mean, Joey. We'd pretend we were giving up the case because of what happened to you and Kaiba and try to get the villains to let their guard down."  
  
"That's right," Joey grinned.  
  
"There's just one problem with that," Seto spoke up, voicing Yugi's own thoughts. "These opponents seem to know every move we make. Chances are that they already know we're both still among the living and that we're still not giving up the case."  
  
"I'm afraid Kaiba's right," Yugi sighed.  
  
"Well, maybe we can all figure out better what to do after a good night's sleep," Tea said.  
  
Seto nodded and turned to leave. "It's good to know that you're alright, Bakura," he said before going out the door.  
  
"He's got that right, pal," Joey smiled, laying a hand on Bakura's shoulder. "You were seriously freakin' us out there for a while."  
  
Bakura smiled a bit embarrassedly.  
  
"So, Joey, what exactly did happen to you and Kaiba?" Tristan asked curiously.  
  
Joey sighed. "Oh man, I told you what happened," he replied.  
  
"The condensed version," Tea retorted. "We want details, Joey!"  
  
"Oh man, Yugi, do I havta tell?" Joey asked, looking at the short boy, who nodded.  
  
"We do want to know, Joey, and what's more, there could be an important clue somewhere," Yugi told him.  
  
"Alright, alright," Joey grumbled, and related the experiences up to the point when the house blew up.  
  
"Man, Joey, you almost got yourself and Kaiba both killed," Tristan said, shaking his head.  
  
"Don't I know it," Joey said, looking at the floor. "I thought Kaiba really was dead . . . and that it was my fault." His voice had dropped to barely above a whisper. He shook his head. "Man, I was so relieved when the guy woke up. . . ."  
  
Yugi laid a hand on his best friend's shoulder. "We all know you'd never intentionally hurt Kaiba," he said comfortingly.  
  
"At least probably not anymore," Tristan said obnoxiously. "Back at the Duelist Kingdom, it was a different story."  
  
Yugi and Joey both ignored him. "And I'm sure you've learned your lesson now, right, Joey?" Yugi went on.  
  
Joey sighed. "I guess maybe I should listen to Kaiba once in a while, at least if he feels uneasy about doin' somethin'," he admitted.  
  
Yugi smiled and nodded.  
****  
Seto sighed as he unlocked the front door and went inside.  
  
"Hi, big brother!" Mokuba chirped, leaping up from the couch and springing into the older boy's arms.  
  
Seto smiled as he embraced his little brother. He should have known that Mokuba would stay up waiting for him.  
  
"You look exhausted, Seto!" Mokuba exclaimed. "Are you okay?"  
  
Seto ruffled the younger boy's hair. "Don't worry, Mokuba," he said. "I'll be alright. I'm planning to stick around for a long time yet."  
  
Mokuba grinned. "I know you will, Seto!" he declared. "Nothing can defeat you!"  
  
Seto sighed inwardly. Unfortunately, not 'nothing,' he thought. But at least I haven't met that 'something' . . . yet.  
****  
Bakura opened his eyes slowly and looked out the window. It was morning, and it looked like it was going to be an overcast day.  
  
He ran a hand through his long, silvery hair and blinked in surprise, realizing that he felt well-rested and completely healed. But . . . how was that possible?  
  
He looked around curiously. Yugi had already gotten up—his cot had been put back in the closet.  
  
Bakura turned to look at the other side of the room. Yami Bakura was dozing in a chair, looking uncomfortable. Bakura's eyes widened, a new thought entering his mind. Was it possible that . . . that his Yami had used his powers to heal him?  
  
Of course not, Bakura sighed to himself. That was ridiculous . . . wasn't it?  
  
He was startled out of his thoughts by the door opening. "Hey, Bakura," Yugi smiled. "How are you feeling?"  
  
"I feel better," Bakura replied, smiling back. "I don't quite understand it, but I feel completely healed!"  
  
The doctor confirmed it when he came by to examine Bakura an hour later. "You, young man, are in perfect health," he declared, looking perplexed. "I just hope you stay that way," he added.  
  
Bakura chuckled. "I do too, doctor."  
  
After the doctor had left, Bakura turned to Yugi. "Are we going to prepare for the moon dance tonight?" he asked.  
  
Yugi nodded. "I'll call the others and we'll have a meeting. But . . . are you sure you want to come with us, Bakura?" he asked worriedly.  
  
"I'm very sure," Bakura nodded firmly. "I want to catch those villains!"  
  
"Okay . . . if you're sure," Yugi said slowly, going out to use the telephone.  
  
Bakura gave his Yami, who had just woken up a moment before, a curious stare. "Yami, did you . . .?"  
  
"No, I didn't, you dolt," Yami Bakura denied, and Bakura had the feeling that the ageless thief was lying. He decided not to push it.  
  
Bakura smiled as he walked out the bedroom door and into the hall, with his Yami following closely. "Alright, then," he said. "Now it's time to solve this mystery once and for all!" 


	19. Halloween Horrors

NOTE: Okay, so I was mistaken. One more Kleenex warning! I wasn't planning to do this, but it just . . . happened. **sob!!**  
  
  
"Alright," Yugi said, looking at everyone gathered in the living room, "we're all here. Let's figure out how we're going to do this."  
  
Seto held up a videotape. "A local ham operator contacted me with this tape he made of the cult's dance ritual."  
  
Yugi took it from him with a smile. "This is great, Kaiba! If we learn how to do the routine right, we've got a much better chance of not being discovered!" He popped the tape into the VCR and they spent the next fifteen minutes watching the members doing their odd dance and strange gestures.  
  
"Good heavens! What are you kids planning now?" Grampa Muto asked, walking into the room. "I have the feeling that this isn't the latest fad," he said wryly, indicating the weird dancers on the TV.  
  
Yugi laughed. "You're right about that, Grampa! We're planning how we're going to defeat those villains we've been fighting."  
  
Grampa Muto sighed and shook his head. "Oh my. I don't know when you kids have been in so much danger."  
  
Joey leaned back on the couch. "Don't worry, Gramps," he said nonchalantly. "We're indestructible!"  
  
Seto raised an eyebrow at him. "I wouldn't be so cocky if I were you, Wheeler."  
  
"Hey, man, you're the one who keeps survivin' these near-death experiences," Joey replied.  
  
"But I'm not cocky about it," Seto told him.  
  
Grampa Muto nodded. "You speak wisely, Seto Kaiba," he remarked.  
  
"That's right," Yugi agreed. "Joey, you should never consider yourself indestructible, because that's when you're most likely to be defeated," the violet-eyed boy said solemnly.  
  
Joey sighed. "Whatever. You're probably right, Yug."  
  
There was a long silence. Finally Yugi said, "Alright, guys, here's the plan—we'll drive up to where we saw them dancing and hide in the bushes nearby. Then, when a cluster of them dances close to our hiding place, we'll sneak out and blend in with them. When they're through dancing, then we'll follow them back inside for whatever's next."  
  
Everyone nodded.  
  
"I'll find my own way to take the place of one of the guards," Seto told them. "But rest assured, I'll be there."  
  
Yugi smiled. "Alright, tonight we're going to solve this, once and for all!" He held out his hand and everyone else laid theirs on top of his in agreement. "Let's do it!"  
****  
"Well, here we are," Joey said grandly. "And there *they* are!" he exclaimed, pointing ahead to the strange group on the mountain.  
  
Yugi nodded, summoning his Yami. "From here we continue on foot," he directed. "If the limo gets any closer, they might hear and be suspicious."  
  
Everyone climbed out and pulled the dark, hooded robes on over their clothes.  
  
"Man, I feel like the Grim Reaper in this getup," Joey remarked.  
  
"You look like him," Tristan grinned.  
  
"Heeey, look who's talkin'!" Joey retorted.  
  
Seto shook his head at their antics and turned to leave.  
  
"We'll see you soon, Kaiba," Yugi said, and Seto nodded in reply.  
  
"Don't do anything stupid, Wheeler," the blue-eyed boy warned.  
  
Joey snorted angrily. "Don't get yourself killed, Kaiba," he retorted.  
  
"Rest assured, Wheeler, I won't," Seto said wryly and vanished into the shadows.  
  
"Well, this is it, guys," Tea declared. "Now let's all be careful!"  
  
Quietly the five teens hiked up the mountain, staying in the shadows, and soon arrived at the place where the cult members were doing their wild dance. Silently they climbed into the brush and watched, waiting for the perfect opportunity to jump in and join them. Before long, several of the figures danced their way over near the bushes and Yugi nodded that it was time. Nervously the teenagers trooped out and started copying the weird moves. Luckily, no one seemed to give them a second glance.  
  
"Kaiba was right about this looking like a windmill," Joey muttered. "I feel like a total doofus!" He heard Tristan snicker at that.  
  
"Look, they're stopping!" Bakura announced presently. "Quickly—we have to follow them!"  
  
"Yugi, what if we have to give a password to enter?" Tea worried.  
  
"I've thought of that, Tea," Yugi replied. "Stay close to the person next to us and maybe we'll hear if they give a password."  
  
Unfortunately, the person muttered it so low that none of them could catch it, and Joey started to panic. "Oh man, oh man, oh man . . ."  
  
"Stay calm, Joey," Yugi told him, walking up steadily to the stoney-looking guard at the cave's entrance. The others could see the Millennium Puzzle glowing under Yugi's robe. The guard gestured inside and moved out of the way, allowing Yugi to pass. The other quickly followed suit, and with them being the last of the group, the guard turned and followed them into the long, dark tunnel.  
  
"Oh man, Kaiba, is it you?" Joey whispered, trying to see through the guard's dark mesh hood.  
  
The guard laughed. "Of course it's me, Wheeler," the familiar voice replied. "Who else would let you in without a password?"  
  
Joey breathed a sigh of relief. "I thought we were busted for sure, man," he remarked. He looked around at the creepy cavern they were descending into. "Oh brother, man, where the heck are we going?"  
  
"I think we're about to find out," Yugi replied grimly and indicated a flickering light just up ahead. They could hear weird chants coming from that direction and Tea shuddered.  
  
When they reached the lighted area, Yugi turned to the others seriously. "Alright, this is it," he said quietly. "Let's all stay close together and be very careful."  
  
"You don't havta tell me twice, Yug," Joey said with a nod. "And eh, if we don't make it out of this, it's been great knowin' you, pal," he said softly.  
  
Yugi nodded and smiled. "Don't worry, Joey, we're all going to make it through this."  
  
The six teens stole into the lighted room and stood by the wall in the shadows, watching to see what was going on.  
  
Most of the cult members were now seated on the ground, gathered around one who seemed to be the leader. Abruptly the figure threw off the hood, revealing a dangerous-looking blonde woman, who smiled evilly and raised her hands into the air.  
  
"Yes, yes! Tonight we will take control of the world! Vampyres will have reign over the entire earth!" she was shouting, and everyone cheered in agreement.  
  
Bakura gasped and cringed, plastering himself against the wall.  
  
"Bakura, what's wrong?" Tea asked.  
  
"That's her," Bakura replied shakily. "She's the one who captured me and made those wraiths torture me!"  
  
Tea gently laid a hand on Bakura's shoulder. "It's alright, Bakura," she said softly. "If you don't want to do this, you don't have to. You could wait for us outside."  
  
Bakura shook his head firmly. "I won't leave you and the others in here. I'm staying!"  
  
"Those ridiculous humans have had control of the world for much too long!" Franceska screamed, holding a strange staff in her hands. "But no longer! We will claim what is rightfully ours!"  
  
"Not as long as you have us to deal with," Yugi said boldly, stepping forward.  
  
Everyone turned to stare at him.  
  
"Spies!" Franceska shrieked.  
  
"What is Yugi doing?" Tristan wondered, his eyes wide.  
  
"I have no idea, man," Joey replied.  
  
Yugi came and stood next to Franceska, but did not remove his hood. "It was you all along, wasn't it? You and your cronies released the scarecrows, zombies, and wraiths to aid you in your nefarious plot!" He looked out over the crowd.  
  
Franceska sneered. "Yes, and now we will turn you all into our willing slaves!"  
  
"You already tried that," Joey said, stepping forward.  
  
"Don't be ridiculous!" Franceska snapped. "Of course I have not! We have been waiting for tonight to take control of the world in one night of glory!" She gestured dramatically.  
  
Yugi nodded. "She's right, Joey. She hasn't tried to turn anyone into her slaves yet. But . . ." He walked up to a figure standing in front and pulled off his hood. "He has."  
  
"Mr. Graves!!!" Tea gasped.  
  
"Mr. Graves??!" Joey repeated. "But why, man?"  
  
"I had the perfect setup!" Mr. Graves sneered. He didn't look upset at being unmasked. "Owning a funeral home, I had access to all the dead bodies and could turn them into zombies whenever I needed new minions!"  
  
"Eh, would you mind runnin' that by me in plain English?" Joey asked. "What about the scarecrows and you wantin' us to investigate? And how the heck could you turn those bodies into zombies?!"  
  
"How? Because I am not the nervous businessman, Mr. Graves—I am a powerful dark sorcerer!" With that he pulled out a deadly-looking staff. "I masqueraded as a vampyre in order to get accepted into this lady's cult, but I was only biding my time until I could rule the world myself! Halloween does seem like the perfect night for it, doesn't it?" Mr. Graves smirked. "As for the scarecrows, well, the real Mr. Graves did want you to investigate, but I couldn't have that, so I decided to destroy you all, but not before toying with your simple minds!"  
  
"If you're not Mr. Graves, then where is he?" Yugi demanded.  
  
"Under my control now," the sorcerer replied. "You know, you all have been very amusing to toy with, but now you will know the true extent of my powers!"  
  
Franceska's eyes burned with anger. "You have deceived us all! Prepare to meet your doom!" She raised her staff at him, and the sorcerer retaliated with his own, sending the vampyress flying against the wall and vanishing into nothing.  
  
"What do you think now?" the sorcerer yelled at the other vampyres gathered around. "I have destroyed your leader. You will now all meet the same fate, and you six . . ." He pointed to the teens with a sneer. ". . . You will all become my slaves!" He paused. "Or maybe I'll just destroy all of you as well, as I originally intended to when I had your friends and family kidnapped."  
  
Seto stepped forward, pulling his robe off and looking ready to attack the sorcerer all by himself. "You're the one who put Mokuba under the zombies' spell? I'll break every bone in your body!" he threatened.  
  
The sorcerer only laughed. "Fool. Have you learned nothing about my powers? If you try to lay one finger on me, I can destroy you in an instant!"  
  
"Your evil magic is no match for my righteous powers," Yugi said stonily as the Millennium Puzzle started to glow. He raised his right hand to banish the wicked man to the Shadow Realm but was suddenly overcome by a horrible burning pain and sank to the ground, gasping for breath.  
  
"Yugi!" Tea gasped, and she and the others ran over to help him.  
  
The sorcerer sneered. "What powers? It looks to me like you have more than met your match." He flung his hand out and chanted something strange in another language and Yugi cried out pitifully.  
  
"Yugi!" another voice called out, and one of the dark-robed figures unmasked himself to reveal . . .  
  
"Mokuba!" Seto gasped. "What are you doing here?"  
  
"I wanted to help, Seto," Mokuba replied as the brothers ran over to Yugi.  
  
"Yugi, man, what's wrong? What did that jerk do to you?" Joey exclaimed, cradling his best friend in his arms.  
  
Yugi's eyes were half-closed and he shook his head weakly. "I . . . I don't know . . ." he rasped.  
  
In an instant, his Yami had left Yugi and was kneeling next to the boy's small body. "Yugi! You're going to be alright, Yugi," he said softly, trying in vain to tap into the Millennium Puzzle to harness its powers.  
  
Yugi smiled sadly. "I . . . I don't think so . . . But you . . . you all can . . . defeat this . . . evil man . . . I know you can . . ."  
  
"Yugi, man, of course we can, and you're gonna be fine," Joey said, finding himself almost to the point of tears.  
  
"Stay with us, Yugi," Tea whispered pleadingly.  
  
Yugi drew a ragged breath. "You're all . . . the best friends . . . I could ever have," he managed to say. "Tell . . . tell Grampa . . . I love him. . . ." His eyes closed and he fell limp in Joey's arms.  
  
"Yugi, no!" Tea cried.  
  
"Come on, Yug, say somethin' man!" Joey begged. "Wake up!"  
  
"It's no use," Seto said quietly. "I'm afraid he's gone." 


	20. Final Battle and Epilogue

NOTES: Wow, the last chapter!! Can you believe it??! Many thanx to everyone who's reviewed this fic; y'all kept me writin' it! ^^ I hope you'll continue to follow my works; I have another mystery fic and yet another Halloween story waiting in the wings! ^_^ Also, here's one final "this is NOT yaoi" reminder ^^  
  
  
Yami Yugi stood up, his eyes burning with outrage and anger. "You will pay for what you've done!" he declared to the sorcerer. "You have destroyed a young, pure, innocent life, and for that I will show you no mercy!"  
  
"Don't be ridiculous. You cannot attack me," the sorcerer sneered. "Your powers are of no use against me."  
  
"Our combined power will defeat you," Yami Yugi replied, linking hands with the others.  
  
"Concentrate hard, everyone," Tea directed. "We'll do this for Yugi!"  
  
Everyone nodded. "For Yugi!" they echoed.  
  
With a cry of anger, the sorcerer raised his staff and shot a bolt of electricity out at them. To his horror, it reflected off an invisible shield they had created and came right back at him, striking him and bringing him to his knees. He screamed as his evil powers were drained from him. He made a last feeble attempt to use his black magic on them, but everyone shot their hands out and banished him into the Shadow Realm. He disappeared with a shriek of torment.  
  
Yami Yugi looked at the five teens and the young boy around him. "He's gone," he stated. "We did it."  
  
"Yugi would be proud," Tea said softly.  
  
"I am," a weak voice replied.  
  
Everyone gasped and whirled around. Yugi was sitting up, watching them with a smile. "I knew you could do it, guys," he declared.  
  
In an instant, Yugi was surrounded by his friends. "Yugi!" Tea exclaimed, rushing forward to hug him. "We were so worried! We thought you were . . ."  
  
"I know," Yugi said softly. "I thought I was a goner, too."  
  
"The guy meant to kill you, man," Joey said, shaking his head in disbelief. "I don't know how you managed to keep on tickin', but I'm sure glad you did!"  
  
Yugi smiled and nodded.  
  
"We are not defeated yet!" an angry voice said from behind them, and the group of eight whirled around to find themselves looking at another vampyre. "You still have all of us to deal with. We will not relinquish control of the world easily!"  
  
"Oh yeah? Well, we'll just see about that!" Joey yelled, preparing to punch the creature.  
  
"You are all disgraces to the vampyre world," a familiar voice said angrily, and one of the many dark-robed creatures removed her hood.  
  
"Madame Fiona!" Joey gasped.  
  
"That is correct, Joseph," the psychic woman smiled. "And my associate, Bob, has brought reinforcements."  
  
Suddenly many lights came on, revealing countless numbers of vampyres lining the walls.  
  
"You are all very brave," Madame Fiona said to Yugi and the others. "And together, we will defeat this evil!"  
  
"Not as long as there is still one of us standing!" the cult member returned forcefully. "We shall be victorious!"  
  
What followed next was an intense battle of good and evil as vampyres and mortals fought both against and alongside each other. Bodies flew overhead and into the deep crevices in the cave with screams of terror.  
  
Joey exchanged punches with one vicious female vampyre and was suddenly thrown dangerously close to the edge by another one that had snuck up behind him. "Yaaaaaa!!" he screamed in terror, certain that he would plunge to a painful death. Abruptly a hand shot out and caught him, pulling him away from the precipice. "Oh, wow, man, thanks a mil," Joey exclaimed, turning to look at his rescuer. It was Seto Kaiba. He gave Joey a silent, stony look and then turned and disappeared back into the mass of warring vampyres and humans. Joey took a minute to catch his breath, and then he too went back into battle.  
  
"Yugi!" Tea was yelling. "How are we going to defeat these creatures?"  
  
Yugi, who had once again merged with his Yami, turned to look at her. "I'm not sure, Tea," he admitted. "If we use the traditional means of defeating vampyres, we might also destroy the good ones that have been helping us."  
  
"We could try stakes!" Bakura suggested, arm-wrestling with another vampyre and loosing badly. A flash of light blinded the creature as Yami Bakura suddenly appeared, taking control of Bakura and twisting the vampyre's arm around painfully.  
  
"Too messy!" Tristan yelled, dodging another vampyre and sending him flying over the edge.  
  
"Then what can we do?" Tea demanded.  
  
"This!" Yami Bakura screamed, holding up a card from his deck. "The Morphing Jar will send them all to the Shadow Realm!"  
  
"No, wait!!" Yugi yelled, tackling the ancient thief and bringing him to the ground.  
  
"That was close," Tea said with a sigh of relief. "We might have all been sent to the Shadow Realm along with them!"  
  
Joey was getting fed up. "Okay, vampyres, eat sunlight!!" He turned his flashlight on full blast and the bad vampyres cringed, screaming in despair.  
  
Yugi looked up. "Good idea, Joey!" he congratulated. "Everyone, turn on your flashlights!" he directed. He turned to look at Madame Fiona, who smiled and nodded.  
  
"I will cast a spell to protect myself and the other good vampyres," she told him.  
  
Before long, the teenagers' combined light was blinding the evil vampyres and causing them to vanish into nothingness. Soon there was only the self-appointed leader left. Her eyes glowed with fire. "You will not get rid of me that easily! This one here—" she indicated Madame Fiona "—may be a good spellcaster, but I am just as good . . . and more deadly! My mastery of black magic has protected me!"  
  
"Oh man," Joey groaned. "Now that one I wasn't expecting!"  
  
"Hmm," Yugi said thoughtfully, "so when the chips are down, I see that you are looking out only for yourself and leaving all your comrades to perish."  
  
The dark vampyre shrugged. "I can always find new followers. There are many who feel as I do!"  
  
Yugi looked at her stonily. "Your black magic may have protected you from our sunlight attack, but I don't think it will protect you from this. Be gone!" he yelled, shooting out his right hand in emphasis. The vampyre screamed and vanished, reappearing in the Shadow Realm.  
  
"Whoa, Yugi, that was great, man!" Joey exclaimed, high-fiving him.  
  
"You were wonderful, Yugi," Tea beamed.  
  
Yugi, feeling his Yami disappear back into the Millennium Puzzle, blushed. He looked up at Madame Fiona. "Is it really over?" he asked. "Are they really all gone?"  
  
The psychic vampyre sorcerer smiled. "It is really over," she agreed. "Thanks to all of you, the world is safe. And even Mr. Graves will be alright. I'm sure he will be very happy to hear that the mystery has been solved." She looked at Joey and Seto. "And you two are both still alive. For the first time, I am relieved that one of my predictions was incorrect."  
  
"Boy, me too, Madame Fiona," Joey said with a nod. "But your prediction came dangerously close to actually bein' fulfilled yesterday."  
  
Madame Fiona held up a hand to silence him. "I know all about the explosion, Joseph. You were both extremely blessed to have survived."  
  
Joey grinned and suddenly threw an arm around Seto's shoulder, startling him. "What did I tell you guys? We're indestructible!"  
  
"Joeeeey!!" everyone scolded.  
  
Joey shrugged. "What, what? I was just kidding."  
****  
It was nearly morning by the time they all made it back to Domino City.  
  
"Man, that was some adventure," Joey declared. "Now that it's over, I just wanna sit back and relax!"  
  
Yugi smiled and nodded. "Me too, Joey. Fighting all those Halloween monsters really takes it out of you!"  
  
"I'm glad that we're all alright," Bakura said softly. "Things could have ended tragically several times on this case."  
  
"That's right," Tea agreed. "I think we should stop solving mysteries, at least for a while."  
  
"That's fine with me," Tristan remarked.  
  
"And with me, too," Mokuba added, hugging Seto.  
  
At that moment, a terrified man came running up to them, his eyes wide. "Did you see it? Did you see it??"  
  
"Calm down, sir," Tea said. "See what?"  
  
"That . . . that . . . that thing up in the sky!" the man shrieked, gesturing wildly.  
  
"What thing?" Seto asked, raising an eyebrow.  
  
"The flying saucer!" the man screamed.  
  
"Flyin' saucer?" Joey repeated.  
  
"Flying saucer?!" Yugi exclaimed. "Where was it?"  
  
"It flew right over my house and landed down in a field," the man replied. "But when I got there to have a closer look, it was already flying away!"  
  
Yugi paused, looking thoughtful.  
  
"Oh man, Yug, are you thinkin' what I think you're thinkin'?" Joey asked.  
  
Yugi nodded. "That's right, Joey. I think we've already got another mystery on our hands."  
  
Joey slapped his forehead. "Oh man, I was afraid of that."  
  
"Here we go again," Tea sighed.  
  
Yugi smiled. "It's alright, guys. I'm sure this mystery won't be nearly as dangerous as the one we just solved."  
  
"Maybe not," Tristan said slowly, "but I do know one thing."  
  
"What's that, Tristan?" Bakura asked curiously.  
  
Tristan grinned mischievously. "It's going to be out of this world!" 


End file.
